Secrets
by baby.turtle.cute
Summary: Eden and Renni are sick of living in the solitude of Forks. They escape from their familys watchful eyes to New York and find themselves wrapped up in the Russo's. Life is safe--for the most part, but everyone has so many secrets. Justin/oc
1. Chapter 1

Secrets

Chapter 1: Forks in the road

Renesmee looked out her window to make sure that everyone was gone, and everyone was, except Emmett, her uncle, who was still down stairs, since it was his turn to watch her. She was never allowed to be home alone and she hated that. She wasn't allowed to do anything any more since the Volturi had come after Ari, the coven guardian. Usually, she didn't care because she had Jacob, but Air had urged him back to school. That only left Renesemme and Uncle Emmett at home to watch her, and Nessie knew she could get away with murder when it came to him. She saw him sitting in the living room and smiled deviously. Quickly, she ran down the stairs. "Uncle Emmett," she called running to the living room using her sweetest voice, "Uncle Emmett," Renesmee batted her eyelashes, "can I go to Eden's and play for a while?" In her mind, she thought how childish she must look, and Renesemme was anything but a child.

Emmett looked away from the baseball game for a minute and then ruffed her hair. In his mind, she was still his little Nessie. "I don't know kiddo, can you?" He smirked at her. Nessie made a face, she was biologically only five years old, but her mind was ever growing, and her body matched that of a sixteen-year-old girl.

"Uncle Emmett, I'm not a kid anymore." She made a face at him, giggled, and batted her big brown eyes at him again. He laughed deeply. "Well, can I? I'm only going to Eden's and you know Ari doesn't care." She pleaded making a cute face and batted her long eyelashes at him a little harder. While the burly, pale vampire would intimidate most people, the little girl wrapped him around her finger expertly. She smiled at him. "Please, we'll behave." Renesemme felt her I.Q. dropping. She hated acting so childlike. It wasn't her style, but she needed to get to Eden's house.

"All right, kiddo, go a head, but stay out of trouble." He patted her head again. She gave him a hug and then ran out the door.

"Thanks Uncle Emmett." She called as she ran out the door.

_Butterfly, butterfly, butterfly_ she chanted mentally as she ran to Eden's, so that Eden's mother, Arimethea, or Ari, wouldn't hear her thoughts, or at least wouldn't know what she was planning. Since sharing her thoughts was Nessie specific power, it was harder for her to block her thoughts than it was for everyone else. Thinking about something else seemed to work however, but now she hoped her mantra wouldn't clue anyone listening in that she was trying to hide something. She could see Eden's run down shack only a few steps away and sighed with relief. Eden hadn't warned her yet that anyone knew of their plan. In front of her, there was a tree with a low hanging branch, and as she ran Renesmee she saw long blonde hair and a round face hanging out of the tree, and before she was able to stop or even figure what was going on, Renesemme found herself in a tree, sitting next to Eden. She was about to scream, but Eden clamped a thin cold hand on Renesemme's mouth.

"Shush" Eden whispered. "Stop screaming, you dork. It's only me." Renesemme calmed down and as she did, she felt Eden's mind shield covering her mind, so that only the two girls could share a link between them. Eden narrowed her blue eyes at Renesemme and then removed her hand once she was sure that Renesemme would not scream any more.

Eden was a half-breed as well. Her mother was a Maladroit, and her father was a vampire. She was an anomaly in reality, even more so than Renesemme. Maladroits and vampire warred hundreds of years ago, and hated each other. The vampires had found that the Maladriots when turned were malicious, insane, bloodthirsty creatures desiring only their own kind. They were uncontrollable, like a turned child, all thoughts gone, only hunger. The only vampire that the Maladroits trusted was Carlisle and his coven by default, which is why they named Ari the coven guardian. When Eden's father, Bjorn, joined the coven, he fell in love with Ari, despite being on a mission from the Volturi. There marriage ultimately resulted in Eden, an anomaly in a strange world. She was literally the only one of her kind, because the Maladroits destroyed all others considering them abominations. Eden had escaped because she was growing under the tutelage of the only trusted vampire coven as well as her mother, a decorated soldier. Unable to know the extent of her vampire powers, Eden focused on her Maladroit powers received from her mother, even her mother's learned powers. Eden's mental powers surpassed her mothers. Now, she was using to shield the hide Renesemme and her from Ari's always listening mind. Once she felt secure in her own shield Eden spoke. "Ok, so a game plan, where are we going?" Eden asked, her voice was soft, not musical, like the vampires, but low like her mothers.

"New York" the older vampire hybrid responded. "I've always wanted to go there. I figured we could hide there best, just no where with a lot of trees." The Renesemme leaned against the tree trunk passively. "I'm so sick of trees I could scream."

"Well, I don't know, I was thinking something a little less big." Eden responded as she stood on the bow to reach to the next one. "I don't want to get to far from trees. They are nice you know."

Nessie rolled her eyes. "Eden, you are so weird. You want to leave Forks, but you don't want to go to a big city." Nessie sighed as she lounged against the tree a little harder. "I mean, imagine, New York City, the Big Apple, people—so many people." Nessie licked her lips, and as she thought of all the hapless, careless people wandering around the city, her eye glazed with hunger. As a young child, before Eden's birth people catered to her every whim, including Carlisle who would occasionally bring her human blood from a blood bank. Once Eden was born, everyone had to be more careful, so the human blood treats were getting rare. It annoyed Renesemme that one girl could so disturb her lifestyle. During Renesemme thought process, Eden had climbed onto a higher branch. Noticing that her friend was in a forbidden fantasy, Eden reached down and smacked Nessie's head. "OW, what was that for?"

"Stop day dreaming, I thought you were a vegan." Eden rolled her eyes. She was never allowed to taste the blood of her own kind, it was one of the conditions of her existence, and human blood didn't appeal to her. Secretly she resented Renesemme for not having so many laws that controlled her life the way Eden did. "Goodness, Renni, keep your mind on the problem at hand, instead of eating. You're always thinking about food." About three years ago, when Eden had first started talking, she couldn't pronounce the nickname or her real name, so she began calling her Renni. The girls only used it between themselves.

"Well, it's not my fault that you're a walking contradiction. Anyway, I still say New York City." Eden walked up and down the branch balancing. She stopped and looked at her only friend. She sighed.

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that." They were silent for a few minutes. While they were quiet, Eden mulled the statement over in her mind. "Besides, you're no better, you're the same sort of contradiction that I am. Only you can feed on your own kind." She retorted. Renesemme glared at her for a few minutes, and they about broke into a scuffle, but each decided that they were better off not fighting; they had to work together if they were going to get anywhere. "Anyway, that's not the point, if we're going to get to New York, we had better go now. Everyone is going to be back in a little while."

"Yeah," Renni agreed, "so where are we going?"

"Well you wanted to go to New York, so give me your hand and I'll teleport us there." Eden lofted down a step and grabbed Reni's hand. She pulled away and down to the next set of branches.

"I'm not trusting you to teleport me, especially somewhere you've never been." Eden growled lowly. They were tense for a moment, neither girl truly knew if they liked the other, or if they were friends because they had no other choices. Ever since Eden's birth, Reni had to deal with the fact that she wasn't the main source of amazement. Eden had to deal with the jealousy that Renesemme could have the life that she never could. Right now, they were friends, but only because neither of them had been allowed out of the small little bubble that became their life. Together they'd devised a plan to show their parents that they could survive outside of the safety of Forks, Washington, the world's smallest town. They were going to run away together to get on with their lives away from the coven.

Ok so it's the same first chapter, but it orignally was complete drivel. I hope this one reads a little better, I'm sorry it's so short, but it's just a test to see how well it recieved. Anyway, constructive critisism always welcome.

Always,  
Baby Turtle


	2. Chapter 2

Renesmee groaned. "Eden, I'm sick of Chicago. I want to go to New York. I thought you could use your mom's mind control powers."

Eden glared at her companion. "I can, but it doesn't work on every one. And could you say it a little louder I don't they heard you in Volterra." She snapped. Renesmee just rolled her eyes. "Besides, it's not from my mother; it's a vampire power. So it's not really like I know how to use it." Renesmee glared at her and then walked away. She flopped into a chair and crossed her thin arms over her chest. Across from her was a T.V. playing the news—always the news. She inhaled, but then held her breath. She was getting a hungry and while Eden never had the problems that people smelled good, Renesmee had it frequently, especially in a place as crowded as an airport. She could feel herself craving blood and tried to stop the problem. She tried to take her mind off her hunger by watching the news.

Apparently, there were some murders going on in New York City. The crime scene showed blood. "_A lot of blood, all that blood—Renesmee stop it. You have to focus on getting out of here and to New York City."_ Suddenly, a thought came to Renesmee, she slapped Eden's arm by her shoulder. The noise of Renesmee hand meeting Eden's arm with such force, coupled with the sound of Eden's shoulder blade smashing the metal chairs behind her silenced the noisy airport.

"Well, if the Volturi didn't know we were here before the most definitely know now." Eden said in a low voice as she glared at her friend darkly while people stared at them. "I don't know if I should hit you back or pretend to be in pain. Where do you get off hitting me like that? Did you finally go insane?" She whispered at Renesmee. Eden stood up, looked at the bent chair, then at the people pointing at her, and then back to the chair. She sighed and walked away. Renesmee followed her quickly.

"Before you so rudely walked away, Eden," Renesmee called, grabbing her arm, stopping her. "I was going to tell you that I had an idea."

"Really, how shocking." Eden retorted sharply. She crossed her arms, still upset about the people still pointing at her.

"Will you stop it?" Renesmee turned to glare at the few people still talking about the incident. They stopped talking immediately, feeling some sort of anger projected on them. Both girls then watched as the air port security stared at the chairs scratching their heads. Renesmee shook her head. "Anyway, getting on with my idea—wait, first, how dangerous is it for you to teleport to a place you've only seen?" She asked. Eden shrugged.

"Not too dangerous, I guess, I've never tried it." Renesmee smiled.

"Ok, so you think you to teleport us there?" She asked as she pointed to the TV showing the New York news. Eden stared at the TV for a minute trying to figure out what exactly Renesmee was getting at. She furrowed her brow as she watched the news anchor announce the death of a man in New York City.

"Why are you pointing at the T—oh." She looked a little harder. "Oh, wow, Renni, you actually had a good idea." They watched the news for a minute longer, before deciding that there was nowhere that they could teleport too. Suddenly a commercial came on, displaying a boutique on Waverly Place. "That place seems as good as any." Eden said. She sighed and held out her hand.

"Wait, how dangerous is this."

"You really want to worry about danger now?" Eden asked. She huffed a sigh and narrowed her blue eyes at Renni. "Well, if you're so worried about dangers, we can just stay in Chicago."

"Oh fine," The vampire half-breed retorted. "If I die though, I swear I'll kill you." She tried to seem menacing, but only made Eden laugh. Renni's parents were stricter than Eden's parents were, so Eden was the stronger of the two girls. Not to mention Renni's soft brown curls and big brown eyes that made people think there was nothing on her mind but unicorns and lollipops, how ever far from the truth that was.

Eden made a face. "If you're dead, how can you kill me? Now come on, we're wasting time; give me your hand." Renni placed her hand in Eden's. "Now focus only on the boutique, nothing else, only that. Visualize yourself there, and think of nothing else." As Renni listened, Eden's voice became distant and nothing seemed to be quite in place. It was something like falling, but slowly falling upward maybe was the best description. It was a familiar feeling since the girls often used Eden's ability to teleport. This seemed to be taking longer than usual. Then she noticed that she felt drops of water on her head. The girls opened their eyes. They had made it two Waverly Place, but it was pouring rain.

Eden stood there with her hands out in disbelief, while Renni ducked her head under her hands. "EDEN, IT'S RAINING!" Renesmee yelled.

"No, really, I thought it was cats and dogs." Eden replied almost snarling.

"What are we supposed to do?"

"Well, maybe have enough sense to get out of the rain. Come on." Eden yelled. She felt eyes on her. Her mind was still closed, but she felt the eyes. Eden cast a glance over her shoulder at a sub shop and noticed a boy standing outside. He was staring at her strangely. She looked him over and decided that he wasn't Volturi. Ignoring him, she ran after Renesmee.

Justin stood in the sub shop kitchen. It was unusually warm in there, but that may be because he was standing by the oven. Apparently, the latest thing was to have all bread toasted. He sighed as he loaded another sandwich into the oven. He set the timer and shut the door. Justin crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the bread as it baked. Suddenly, he wasn't staring at the oven turning a brilliant shade of orange, but at a girl with eerie blue eyes, and long blonde hair. She sat on the counter smiling at him, and then reached out to touch him. "Justin," she said laying a hand on his shoulder. Her hand felt like ice.

A sharp pain in his stomach brought him back to reality, as Justin found himself leaning against the counter where his mirage was sitting. The oven was buzzing, letting him know that the bread was ready. He looked behind him and saw Alex standing there. She was laughing pointing at him, and saying, "You fell." She had a goofy grin on her face that only irritated him more.

"Actually, Alex" he said through gritted teeth, "you pushed me."

She blinked at him and shrugged. "Well, you say tomato, I say—actually, I don't care." She looked at him. "Aren't you going to get those sandwiches before they burn?" Alex said as she walked back into dinning room. Justin watched walk away and sighed. He'd been having strange visions of that girl always the same, her eerie blue eyes, long ash blonde hair, and icy touch. He'd tried to ask his father about it, but he was merely told to stop day dreaming about pretty girls. Justin knew that this was more than a daydream. There was no way that it could be a daydream because they felt more like déjà vu. Justin finished making the sandwiches and then set them out for order and decided to worry about it later.

Two days had passed since his last vision. He was glad; sometimes he lost hours of time when she would come. Once she had had a one sided conversation with him. It had started at 10 p.m. and didn't end until 12 a.m. Another time, he'd been pouring a drink and she came and said something to him, long enough for him to overfill the drink on to the customer. It was unnerving to think that he might be going insane, and he could never remember what she'd said to him, only that she said his name. He'd tried telling his family, but they just weren't understanding, and he wasn't sure how to articulate with out sounding like pervert. Justin had given up and decided that he was going to ignore the visions what ever happened, though he wasn't sure how he could since they seemed to paralyze him from reality. He'd read as many books as he could in the lair, and nothing said anything about seizures, and none of his symptoms matched seizures, so Justin was at a loss.

"Ok, sir, you wanted a turkey sandwich on 12 grain white toasted, with a side of chips, and you ma'am. What would you like?" Justin smiled politely as he took the order from the couple sitting by the window. Business was slow today, since it was raining. Why did it need to rain in December and not snow, it was too cold as it was. He looked at the lady and then to his order pad. He looked outside one last time and saw something he'd never thought he'd see outside of his "seizures". It was the blonde girl. She was standing palm up in the rain, arguing with another girl.

"Young man, are you going to take my order down?" The woman said snottily. Justin looked at her but didn't really see her.

"Please excuse me." He said dropping his order pad on their table and running outside. He ran to the curb and continued to stare at the girl. She turned around and scrutinized him in one look. She furrowed her brow at him, then turned away, and followed the other girl. He stood there for a few more minutes watching her move a little too quickly for a human. She was graceful too, carefully dodging people on the crowded sidewalk.

"Justin, what are you doing?" Jerry yelled. "Get back inside!" Justin walked towards the door, but not before looking again at the end of the street where his litteral dream girl had just been. Then a thought dawned on Justin, what if his seizures weren't seizures at all, what if they were visions?

Next chapter, I want to thank my two reviewers. And checked Renesmee's name spelling and it didn't look wrong. Oh well, thanks for reviewing. I hope you like chapter two. We now see our Wizard character. Anyway, enjoy everyone and review.

Always,

Baby Turtle


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Lost

Ari walked slowly as she watched her husband eat the bear. She laughed to herself and sighed. She was never going to get used to the vampire lifestyle. She watched the other vampires surrounding her. It was late at night and the three-day camping trip was come to an end. She glanced up at the stars feeling perfectly content. She had already shot her prey and cooked it. She watched them drain the blood from a distance. As she watched, she decided to listen to the thoughts of her coven. Alice was watching Jasper admiringly. Everyone was very proud of him for doing so well in the last few years. Jasper was feeling emotions of everyone in the area. They were all pleasant which made it nice to be in his head. She skipped to Rosealie who was more interested in not mussing her hair. The Bella and Edward were discussing something, but it seemed private so she skipped on to her daughter, Eden, and Nessie. She couldn't find their thoughts.

_Bjorn_, _I can't find the girls._ The burly blonde vampire looked up at his wife and then down at his bear. _Eden's shielding their thoughts._

He sighed. _I'm sure they're up to some sort of mischief. You know Eden and Nessie. Don't worry about them._

_It's not in my nature to not worry, Bjorn. You know that Eden would be all right, but Nessie, she's a little more shielded from the world. _

Bjorn finished his bear quickly and went to his wife's side. "Ari, I'm sure what ever the girls are doing they're fine. We left Emmett with them." He put an arm around her and drew her too him, his pale white skin cold against her own ghostly complexion. Ari smiled and then looked up at her mate. He was smiling so enticingly, and his bright blue eyes seemed to gleam. It was part of his charm literally. Bjorn had the power to charm people make them think what he wanted; it was useful. At first, the charm took the entire coven in, but after so many years, they barely felt it anymore.

"My dear husband, are you trying to charm me? As you are, I must inform you that I am immune to your charms." Ari asked with a smirk. He laughed and kissed the top of her head. "Oh well, I'm sure you're right anyway." She laughed. Her mind went back to watching everyone else's thoughts considering her own were not very pleasant. She knew that her daughter was strong and willful, but the Volutri and hundreds of others were waiting for her to fail. If she ever failed, Eden would be either killed or given to the Volturi. Arimathea hoped that the Maladroit council would be merciful to her daughter if she ever failed.

_You really shouldn't expect her to fail you know._ Jasper said to her mentally. The sound of some one talking in her mind startled her. To keep the coven as safe as possible, Ari opened what was known as a web. It was where a select group of people or vampire and werewolves in this case could hear and project into each other's mind, if the person had no guard on their minds. Jasper rarely used the web, to hear him in her mind startled her. _I know what it's like to be considered to failed before the failure takes place. It's not easy, and we don't even know what will happen, so don't already consider her failed. _

_I don't, Jasper, but there's always the possibility. If Eden were ever caught by the Volturi—_

_Don't even think like the Arimathea, Eden's your daughter, for her to be caught, the Volturi would need some one with intimate knowledge of her, and as no one has that, we're safe. _

_I know, but still—_Ari felt the connection cut as Jasper put up his mental shields again. She sighed and decided to ignore the feeling that her daughter and her ward were in some sort of danger. She felt some sort of calm wash over her, and shot a glare at Jasper's retreating form. She hated it when he would use his powers to calm her down.

The coven continued to hunt and feed until a grief stricken howl was heard in the distance. It sounded like a woman screaming. Edward stopped hunting the mountain lion and ran towards Bella, who was already on her way to the clearing where the coven met after hunting. "That sounded like Leah." He said sharply. From the corner of his eye, he saw Arimathea standing stock-still, reading the werewolves thoughts from a distance.

"It is," She said in a low voice. "It is Leah—and Emmett." Her eyes clouded and she narrowed them at the direction of the duo. "No," she practically growled in the same low voice. "What do you mean? NO! I'll kill him. I'll kill him!" As Emmett came in the clearing, Ari lunged at him. Emmett saw her coming and grabbed her by the waist before she seriously hurt herself.

"Bjorn, control her!" Emmett yelled slightly scared. Ari though she wasn't as strong or as physically powerful as he, but her mental abilities were a force to be contended with. Bjorn rushed his wife and grabbed her by the arms. "Ari, I'm sorry!" Emmett yelled. Everyone else in the party just looked confused until Edward caught enough from Leah to get the gist.

"WHAT!" He roared lunging for Emmett as well. Everyone just stared at them as he tackled the burly vampire to the ground and began wrestling with him. He wasn't even using his powers, he was too distraught by the news. The only thing he could think about was dismembering Emmett's head from his body. The sudden rushed attack on her mate caused Rosalie to join in the fight. She grabbed Edward and pulled him back, giving Emmett enough time to get back on his feet and prepare for another attack. Bella watched in horror for a moment before she too joined in the fight. She stood by Edward like a protective dark-haired goddess about to rip the throat out of another protective blonde goddess. Though Rosalie and Bella had formed some small bond of Nessie, they still didn't like each other.

"Uh-oh" Alice whispered. She had seen in the future that this was going to happen and turned to her mate. Jasper looked sick, he was trying to give everyone a feeling of calm, but the tensions were still running extremely high. "Jasper, are you all right?" She asked him moving a lock of his blonde hair from his face. Jasper shook his head and ran. He couldn't take the extreme feelings of hate.

Ari and Bjorn stood a few feet away. Bjorn just watched the others fascinated, what ever had upset Ari, upset Edward too which meant it had to do with—he heard her crying. Torn from his thought Bjorn was immediately at his mate's side. Arimathea did _not_ cry.

"My love, what is wrong?" He asked.

_It's the girls; they're gone. _The information took a moment for Bjorn to understand, but finally he did. Bjorn clutched the spot where his heart was and rested a heavy hand on his wife's shoulder as if he were going to collapse.

"No, that can't be true."

Her only response was a tearful nodd. Ari cast a blue-eyed glance at the rest of the coven and bit her lip. She had a duty to protect them and right now they needed protecting from themselves. She sucked in her own pain, dried her eyes, and marched over to them.

"ENOUGH!" She bellowed. Her voice bounced off the trees and the mountains making everyone stare at her. Rarely did Ari raise her voice especially with vampire and werewolves always around her. "Enough," she said again. "This isn't helping. Fighting each other will _not_ bring our younglings back." She took a deep breath. "We must devise a plan of search and possible rescue."

"Ari's right." Edward relented. He was trying to be reasonable though some part of his more animalistic side wanted to rip Emmett's throat out. "We have to find Nessie and Eden before something happens too them." He finished hanging his head and walking to Ari's side. He grabbed Bella's hand and pulled her along as well. The other's slowly rejoined the group and even Jasper, feeling everyone had calmed down came out of his hiding place.

"All right, now that we're all in accord, we begin the search plan. Leah, what has your pack done to recover them?"

_Nothing, our pack leader is beside himself. I think Seth is trying to organize a tracking group._

"Good" Ari said with a slight nod. "Now, lets go home and see what we can find there." The coven ran back to the house each picking up little scents of the lost children. At the cottage, Edward and Bella began a speedy process of checking Nessie's room for any evidence only to find all her belongings gone. It was the same with Eden's room at the lodge. There was even less evidence at the main house. When Bjorn and Ari appeared in the living room, Alice was calling Carlisle and Esme. They were on Esme's Isle taking an anniversary trip. "They aren't going to be happy." She frowned as she dialed the number. She looked at Ari and tried to smile. The Maladroit just looked away and walked back into the other room. She saw Bella sitting on the chair heaving, the only way a vampire could cry. Ari couldn't let herself cry just yet; she had to be stronger than everyone else. She was the coven guardian and guardians did not break down and cry. This was her mantra, because all Ari wanted to do was go home crawl in her bed and cry, but until she was able to do this Arimathea had to be stronger than everyone else around her. Which wasn't hard, Edward, Bella, and Bjorn were the most distraught. They had all spun off into their own protective worlds. Emmett was riddled with guilt that had him sitting on the couch staring at the tv. Rosealie not sure how to handle everything went to the garage. Jasper disappeared; Ari figured it was due to all the negativity in the room. It was a glum sight. Even Jacob's thoughts were depressing. He was near Seattle searching out the girls' scents. Ari could still hear him though. She'd introduced the pack into the coven's web lines months ago. It made it easier to communicate.

She listened as Alice talked with the coven father and mother on the phone. She was only getting half the conversation, which frustrated her. Alice got off the phone and then looked at Bella. "Yes, you should go see Charlie." She said. Bella looked at her wide eyed and then glanced at Arimathea who was also looking at Alice. "Before you say anything, he's law enforcement and can help."

Ari stepped back. She new Alice couldn't see her future, so how was she predicting an objection. "Alice, can you—"

"No, but I saw Bella's answer, so I figured that you must have objected." Alice explained with a smile. "You should go with her Ari, since it would be Charlie you need to talk to."

"I think she can manage on her own." Ari said stoically. It was no secret that Charlie and Ari didn't like each other. No one really knew why, but Edward and he was sworn to secrecy on pain of a murderous death. "Besides, the pack should be back soon and it would be more useful for me to be here."

"Not necessarily," Bella said. Ari turned her eyes to Bella and gave her a sharp look. "You and Charlie are something a like, both guardians, so when you put your collective knowledge together you might come up with some better solutions. Besides, you're very emotionally involved in this." She placed a hand on Ari's shoulder. The blonde Maladroit let a sigh out, that breath felt the same one she'd taken when the entire ordeal started. She closed her eyes and calmed down for a moment before answering.

"Fine, I'll go." She muttered.

Almost in an instant Bella and Ari were in the car driving towards Charlie's. It took them a few minutes, only because the ever-cautious Bella had to obey the speed limit. They neared the police station. "He's not in a pleasant mood." Ari said cryptically. "When we get there I think I should wait in the car."

Bella rolled her now golden yellow eyes. "He's not in a pleasant mood, or you're not in a pleasant mood." She asked. "And no, you're not waiting in the car, you're coming in. You can be civil to my dad for three minutes."

"Not if you knew what I know about him." Ari grumbled barely loud enough for Bella to hear, though it didn't matter because Bella would hear it anyway. Before she could ask what Ari knew, the blonde glared at her. "You don't want to know Bella, trust me. I know and I wish I didn't."

Bella creased her forehead. "Come on Ari," she got out of the car and the guardian followed suite. "What's more important you're personal distaste or our daughters." Ari crossed her arms. She didn't like the idea of asking Charlie for help, but Bella was right, her daughter was more important and it was time to make a truce. She followed her niece (it was decided that Arimathea was Carlisle's sister) into the police station. Charlie was sitting behind a desk, mulling over paperwork.

_This could get tense; we should have brought Jasper._ Ari said in Bella's mind.

_You're going to have to get over what ever it is that made you so angry with Charlie, Ari. He's really a good guy. Besides, Jasper is hiding from us right now. I can only imagine what a train wreck we all are for him. Poor Jasper. _Ari didn't respond to Bella's argument instead she focused on Charlie who finally saw them walking in.

"Bells!" He said, moving to give his daughter a hug, and the he saw Ari. "Arimathea" he said curtly. "Where's Nessie?" He asked looking around for his granddaughter. They decided that since Ari's protection covered the entire Swann family they could tell him a little more about vampires. It helped explain a lot.

"Dad, that's what we came here to talk to you about. You see—" Bella faltered unsure of how to tell him. "The thing is that Eden and Nessie—well, they—they ran away." She said finally. Charlie furrowed his brow and looked to Ari to see if this was some horrific joke, but when she looked down, he knew that it was true. He went into police officer mood and began questioning Bella.

"When?"

"We only found out last night, but we think yesterday morning, because there scent is old." Bella explained.

"What's being done to recover them?"

"Jacob and the pack are trying to follow their scent, but it hard with Eden because she doesn't stay in one spot very long, and she has Nessie with her." Bella explained. It was true that the ablitiy to teleport had made Eden difficult to track.

"Why?"

"I—we—they just—we don't really know." Bella finally dropped down in a chair and began heaving. She put her hands to her face to hide the fact that she couldn't produce tears. Charlie suddenly felt uncomfortable. He knew his daughter was strong, but this was her little girl. He looked towards the window where Ari was staring at the rain outside. She had her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed as if she were concentrating on something. He thought while Bella cried it would be best to ask Ari a few questions.

"Want some coffee?" He asked as an ice breaker. He held out a Styrofoam cup. Ari accepted it and then took a sip of the black coffee.

"Ask me your questions, Charlie." She said returning to the rain.

"Arimathea, what are you doing to recover the girls?"

"I don't know." Her brilliant blue eyes turned to him first, followed by her face slowly. "For the first time in a very long time, I'm completely useless." Charlie held her gaze for a moment before looking down into his coffee. He was feeling a minute amount of the pain she was. He knew somewhere along the way, Ari had lost some children, and this had to be like ripping open an old unhealed wound and then pouring salt into it. In some way, he knew she felt that it reflected on her as a parent. When he looked back up, she'd returned to watching the rain. She tilted her head and then continued. "I can't track like they do, and I trained Eden well enough that she can block me out of her mind. I can't find them—_her._"

"Arimathea, I'm more than willing to help. I know you and I don't get a long, but Eden's a part of my family too." He said joining her in staring at the rain. He wondered what Ari saw in the droplets of water plinking on the windowpane. Maybe she was imagining some brilliant scheme to get the girls back, or maybe she was seeing ghosts from a past life. "Where do you think they would have gone?"

"I don't know, somewhere crowded probably, more minds harder to find, and Nessie always liked cities. And they're together I know that much, Eden is Nessie's shield, with out her anyone could find Nessie. Besides they both know safety in numbers." Charlie nodded. He stirred his coffee for a minute before looking back up. He had to stop grieving and start helping.

"Have you checked their bank records to see if they're leaving a paper trail?" He asked. Ari knitted her brow and then looked at him.

"No, no we haven't." She pulled out her cell phone and dialed the bank. Charlie nodded and turned to go back to Bella to see if she'd collected herself yet. "Charlie," Ari called after him, "thank you." He smiled at her and nodded again.

Eden came from the bathroom and walked into the bedroom. "Ok, we have to get out of here, I just found a peep hole in the shower."

"Ew, and the guy that's next to us—ew, that's gross." Renni conceded. "That's fine by me, we have to get out of here, I went to get ice and counted five prostitutes, I stopped there because there was a whole gang of them standing by the vending machines." Eden made a face.

"All right, I'm going down for check out." Eden grabbed her coat. She didn't want to be seen, more than once had one of the pimps tried to approach her and Nessie. It had been a slim chance that her charm worked on them, and she didn't want it to happen again.

"Where are we going to stay?"

"I don't know. Anywhere that's not here." Eden responded as she closed the door. After the first night, Eden stopped listening for anything that sounded suspicious in the minds of the people in the motel. She figured any vampires that were in here were looking for dinner. Over the course of three days, there had been numerous vampire attacks, but none of them even thought to bother the girls. Each one was only looking for a meal and these poor girls were it. Eden sighed and went to the counter. She rapped on the glass to get the little Indian man's attention. He was busy watching soccer on the television. While he came around to the front, Eden inspected the lobby. There was nothing out of the ordinary, she caught a glimpse of a vampire leaving and sighed. Then she saw him. He was a tall man, with lean muscles, his features looked familiar and when he turned around she saw his eyes, the same brilliant blue that ran in her family. Eden didn't bother to read his mind fearing that he could do the same. Instead, she looked away immediately and shielded herself from him. Suddenly, she felt fidgety and slightly terrified. To keep calm she ran her tongue over her teeth inside her mouth. The little Indian man finally made it to the counter. "What do you want?"

"I would like to check out room 345 immediately. What's my balance?"

"$234.56, couldn't hack it. Most you girls don't get out this soon oh well, more profit for me." He chuckled as she slid the money in the change receiver.

"It's an even $300.00. Keep the change." With that, Eden left the lobby, trying to make her body walk at a leisurely pace. She felt like she should run all the way up to the room. She didn't know if the man was still there, and she didn't want to find out.

"Wow, that was fast." Renni said as Eden burst through the door. The blonde sighed with relief as she shut the door behind her.

"We need to get out of here, Renni." She said breathlessly.

Renesmee jumped to her feet. "What did you do?" She shouted.

Eden crossed the room and covered Renni's mouth with one hand. "I didn't _do_ anything. There was this man and I think I'm related to him, but my mom's family doesn't really know about me, and they don't like her."

"So?"

"So, we're talking about extremely dangerous messing with my mom's family they're all insane and not insane like my mom, just crazy." She said gathering the bags all one place.

"Ok so where are we going?" Renni asked as she picked up her two bags.

"Back to Waverly Place, I figured we could get jobs—"

"JOBS? what? why do we need jobs? We have plenty of money."

"Possibly because two teenagers with this much cash might seem suspicious. Besides, working is good for us, it means we can find people, decent people to live with and not live in dumps like this." Eden said. She opened the door and carried her two bags out. They girls didn't care if they seemed suspicious two sixteen year old girls carrying two bags in each hand. The people around here weren't going to tell anyone. They walked to the street and then Eden teleported them back to Waverly Place in front of the same boutique. The bags had disappeared, or rather were invisible to those who didn't know what they were looking for thanks to another trick that Ari had taught Eden.

"All right oh great leader, where do we start?" Renni said skeptically. Eden looked around and saw the help wanted sign in the window of a sandwich shop.

"There, Waverly place sub shop. Maybe we can charm the people into letting us stay there." Eden said as she walked up to the sign and grabbed it. "Come on Renni you're being slow about this. We have to get jobs if we want a place to live."

"I still say we need to live in the Plaza hotel. It would be nice for just a little bit of luxury, Eden." Renni said as she plodded after her in a very un-vampire like manner. "Eden, stop ignoring me!"

"Hush up, Renni let's get in there an get jobs." Eden snapped. She opened the doors and thought ruefully. _Thus, the secrets begin._

TBC….

Anyway, the plot thickens. Will Charlie and Arimathea ever like each other? Who is that man that Eden saw? Will Eden and Nessie get jobs? I sound like a Rocky and Bulwinkle cartoon. ^_~ Ok so tune in next time for more Secrets. By the way, remember, READ AND REVIEW (reviewing includes critique, flame and just plain old comments.) More reviews inspires me to write more.

Chlavisfan4ever: I'm glad you liked it. I can't tell you why Justin's having visions of Eden that wouldn't make it a cool surprise. lol Anyway, enjoy this chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Wary Wizard of Waverly place

Eden and Renni slowly walked into the sub shop. They each got a mix of scents; warm bread slowly baking in the back, meats, and sandwich fillings, sweat and the wonderful aroma of human body, hot from the restaurant, hot from the cold outside, with blood flowing back into their frozen extremities. It didn't take Renni long, before she stepped back outside into the smoggy street. Eden knitted her brow and followed her cousin. She wasn't affected the same way by the tantalizing scent of human blood. To her it was the same as any other smell. The only thing that appealed to her was the smell of another Maladroit. Even her own mother at times appealed as a not so delicate meal, especially after a strenuous exercise.

"Renni, what's wrong?" She asked. The other vampire looked at her pointedly.

"I can't go back in there." She said quietly, casting a weary glance over her shoulder. "It just smelled so—so—so good. I don't think I'm strong enough to go back in there and not attack some one." She sighed and leaned her body against the brick wall next to them. They both glance across the street at the hot dog vendor as a boy let out a wolf whistle and then they sighed. It was difficult enough to be different, but to be torn between to worlds so drastically different was pure agony sometimes. A gust of wind kicked up a small snow flurry and pushed it over the toes of Eden's black boots. She looked down at it for a moment and stared trying to divine some magical message from them telling them what to do.

"I wish Jacob were here." Renni said.

"What help would he be? He doesn't know what you're dealing with?" Eden retorted nastily. She'd always been jealous of the relationship that Renni and Jacob shared. Imprinting saved a lot of trouble for both of them, because no matter what Renni did, Jacob would always be there for her. At this point in her life he was her best friend, though they both knew—or at least hoped—it would end in more than that. Eden on the other hand felt completely alone in the world. Not accepted by anyone, sometimes she felt that her own coven thought of her as a freak.

_Who am I kidding? I am a freak_. _I'm not really supposed to be here. _She sighed. It was a hard world and Eden learned along time ago that she would have to face it by herself.

_You're being melodramatic again, Eden. You know the coven will always be there for you._ Eden turned sharply to her friend and glared.

_This isn't a party line, Renni._

_Yeah, but you think so loudly._ The girls again glared at each other. A group of teenagers bustling by them, kicking up snow that landed on the girls reminded them of their original objective. Get a job. They waited a few more minutes before walking back into the sub shop. Eden lead and Renni gulped in a deep breath. Tonight she would have to feed; she was too hungry for human food anymore.

Justin grumbled to himself as he mopped up the floor by the window. People were tracking in snow all day making the floor slick. He'd almost tripped twice, and his dad had fallen completely. "You put up the signs and for what? No one pays attention to them. Everyone thinks that they can just walk all over a wet floor and they won't get hurt. That's why you put up the signs." He continued complaining quietly to himself until he felt a soft tap on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, young man" He turned around to face an elderly lady. There was something wrong with her; her lips were folding in over her gums. "I seem to have lost my teeth in my cup could you please go look for them?" Justin tried not to shudder or cringe at the thought of finding someone's teeth in a cup, but at the same time, it was no different than finding a retainer in the garbage. He didn't have time to reply to her, because Alex started screaming from the back.

"EW! ew ew ewewewewewew!"

"I think we just found them." He forced a smile and then walked to the back of the restaurant.

"SO GROSS!" Alex was still exclaiming. She had dropped the cup and the dentures back into the sink of hot washing water. Justin sighed.

"You're wearing gloves dummy," he said walking to the sink and grabbing his own pair. "You didn't even touch it."

"It doesn't matter; it's still gross and I'm never washing dishes again!" Alex said, still shuddering and trying not to throw up.

"You're an idiot." He muttered as he grabbed the dentures and washed them off. "Now finish these dishes or dad will get on you about it." He was still grumbling as he went to the old woman. He was almost there when he saw her—the girl with the long blonde hair—and another girl with dark curly hair talking to his mom. He stopped in his tracks and dropped the dentures to the floor. He looked around to see if he was having another vision, but he wasn't. She was in the sub shop and holding up a piece of paper.

"Young man, you dropped my teeth." The old lady said in a scolding tone. Justin looked at her and looked down at the floor.

"Uh, so I did, he laughed nervously. He looked at them closely. He needed to get back to the lair and do some research, more research on visions. He looked around for some one to dump the woman off on and then saw Max. He grabbed his little brother by the arm. "Here, Max will help you." He said dropping the dentures into Max's hands. "I just remembered I left a sandwich in the oven." With that Justin walked very quickly away.

Eden and Renni approached a lady, who seemed to be in her late thirties. She was wiping the tables down. "Excuse me ma'am, but we're looking for work, and saw the "help wanted" sign. We'd like to work here." Eden said. The woman looked at her and then smiled. She had a Hispanic flair to her, and it came out even more when she spoke.

"Well, hello, girls, yes we're accepting applications. Come with me; let me get you some." She said smiling. She tucked her rag into her apron and walked to the front counter. The girls followed her. "Now, I'm sure we'll have to work around your school hours, but if you work on Saturdays it won't be so bad."

Eden sighed. "We'll actually we're not currently enrolled in school." She said. The Spanish woman stopped and stared at both of them.

"Why not?" She asked with a dark look. Theresa looked at the two girls suspiciously. They looked like they had money, the clothes looked designer. They weren't street girls; they didn't have the demeanors. Were they drop outs?

This time Eden looked to Renni, who was usually better at coming up with things on the fly to get them out of trouble. Renni's eyes were wide as the woman gave her a sharp look. It was the look that mothers seemed to come by naturally. It made her feel like she was in deep trouble. "Well, you see—we—uh—well, our parents died recently." The Spanish woman's face softened. Renni started to heave to make it look like she was crying. "Yeah, it was an awful death; we know that much, but no one will tell us what really happened. We were sent to the home, but we thought it would be better if we were just on our own." She looked to Eden, who was also pretending to cry. It was hard because neither of them could.

It worked though. The lady softened completely. "Oh, girls, I'm so sorry." She crooned at them. "Do you have anywhere to stay?" She asked.

Eden looked down. "Thank you." She murmured softly through a pretend crying voice. "But, no, we don't, we were staying at a hotel, but—" She stopped talking and cringed, hoping the idea would get across to her.

"Oh, I'm sorry. What are your names?"

They looked at each other and Eden spoke first. "Renni and Eden—" They hadn't thought to come up with a last name and then realized that they didn't have one. Eden's mind scrambled for a millisecond before she said, "Gardener, Renni and Eden Gardener."

"Oh, well, those are nice names. I'm Theresa Russo." She stood there still looking at the girls. If they were sisters, they didn't look similar at all. _Not that sisters have to look similar, but usually they don't look so different._ Theresa thought to herself.

"We're cousins." Eden replied. "On our father's side." Theresa nodded thoughtfully and looked down.

"Mrs. Russo, can you suggest a nice, cheap hotel for us to stay in?" Renni asked smiling. She looked to Eden. _Try you're charm on her._

_It might not work; you know that right. She thinks in Spanish so I can't determine any of her thoughts._

_Just try it._

"It would be so nice to have a place to stay." Eden looked at the woman deeply. Theresa looked at Renni, and then to Eden. Her blue eyes seemed to glitter. Suddenly, Theresa found herself wanting to do what ever she could to please this girl. She was a little lost in the blue eyes, and had a warm and fuzzy feeling. "I mean, we're so alone and unprotected out here? Don't you agree?" Theresa knew the voice was coming from the girl, but it sound a little more like something soothing from a dream.

"Yes" She replied dreamily. "I do."

Eden sighed with relief internally; her charm was working. She was going to try it. "It would be nice if you let us stay here." Eden said. It was a suggestion. Eden had often wondered what it was like being charmed. How the suggestions passed through the ears and into the brain's conscience thought and translated into an acceptance. Did it register as their thoughts or was it something else.

Theresa heard the suggestion and took it in. Again, she felt the uncontrollable urge to please this girl. She wanted to do everything in her power to make this girl happy. She wanted them to live with her. Yes, that was it; they needed to live with her. She sighed. She'd never felt so compelled, but at the same time completely content to do something. "Well, you girls just wait right here. I'll see what I can do about that." She patted them each on the cheek, took one last look into the compelling blue eyes, and went to find her husband.

"Jerry," Theresa called as she walked into the kitchen. She went into the meet locker and saw her husband. "I want to adopt two girls." She said matter-of-factly. He looked at her incredulously.

"What?"

"I want to adopt two girls." She put her hands on her hips feeling the fight coming. "They're standing out in the sub shop right now."

"Theresa, what are you talking about? We can't adopt anyone." Jerry said, furrowing his brow at his wife and cocking his head. "In case you didn't remember, we're wizards." He continued in a snotty tone. Theresa tensed her body confrontationally. She narrowed her eyes at him with a deadly glare. Jerry tried to smile at her to get her to stop staring at him. _It must be a wife thing._

"Jerry, I want to adopt these girls." She snapped. "Wizards o no, I want to adopt them." She leaned forward and pointed a tan finger in his face.

"Theresa, no, and that's final." Jerry replied, ignoring his wife's demanding hazel-eyed gaze. He turned back to the task he was doing before and heard a sharp gasp of air. _Oh no_, he thought shortly before Theresa's Spanish tirade began. She was yelling Spanish, thankfully, but Jerry got the gist of it. Theresa couldn't explain it, but she still had that compelling feeling to take these girls under her wings, and she was going to stop at nothing to get her way. Her mind felt a little foggy like she was watching herself from afar. The blue eyes of the young girl standing in the shop were still haunting her. She still saw the stars in them gleaming, almost like they were compelling her to do this. She looked at Jerry, maybe if he saw the blue eyes he would understand too. She stopped yelling and grabbed his hand. "Come, see."

Eden leaned against the counter, her thin arms and slender hands hung off delicately. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on the thoughts swirling around her. "I can hear her, but everything's foggy and echoes." She said to Renni. Renni nodded and put her hand on Eden's arm showing her the experience from her point of view. Eden looked down at her coven sister's hand and inspected it for a minute. It was a beautiful peach, healthy and round, the exact opposite of Eden. Her fingers were short and dainty. Eden sighed and leaned her head back again as she absorbed everything going on around her. She was enjoying the thoughts of so many different people. She skipped from mind to mind until she landed on a mind where she saw herself. Someone was watching her intently, but with a familiar feeling. Eden completely let go of her own conscience, and moved to the mind of the individual. He was standing somewhere high, and staring intently at her profile. Eden didn't have the power to take on another person's emotions, accept Renni's, but that was only because she could project her emotions, so the sense of familiarity was new to her. She could feel this boy's mind though. He knew Eden, but yet at the same time she was just a distant—a distant feeling. Eden tried to search through his memories, but nothing was happening. His mind was much stronger than most, even vampires', granted there wasn't much variation in the town of Forks.

"OW!" Eden exclaimed as Renni jabbed a sharp elbow in her ribs. "What?"

"She's coming back." Eden whispered. "_I thought you were watching her."_

"It wouldn't do me any good, she thinks in Spanish." Eden retorted. The girls just stared at each other, but stopped when Mrs. Russo returned; pulling a middle aged man, who was a little paunchy in the middle. He had short blonde hair and a distinctive accent. Eden turned to him and just stared. There was something off about him, his smell wasn't quite right—wasn't quiet human. She changed her stance for a second, and noted Renni had done the same so obviously they were both getting the same scent from him. Renni was the first to notice that their defensive stance was completely uncalled for. She reached over, touched Eden's arm, and showed her thoughts. The blonde changed her stance immediately.

"Girls," Mrs. Russo said, "I would like you to meet my husband." She pulled him so that he stood in front of the girls. They both reached out a hand for him to shake.

"It's a pleasure, Mr. Russo. I'm Renni Gardener, and this is my cousin Eden Gardener." Renesmee said with a big charming smile. It was the roughish smile that her father used. She'd seen him use it on people, and even her mother from time to time. She'd spent months emulating it, and practicing with Jacob. _I miss Jacob._ She thought. She was glad that Eden was there, but nothing compared to the comfort that Jacob offered. He was always there for her to cater to her every whim, and that wasn't even the best part. He loved her unconditionally. She sighed and then realized that Mr. Russo was talking. She blinked a few times and smiled a little wider careful to not show her teeth. She looked from the corner of her eye to Eden, who was talking to him.

"Well, Mr. Russo, I understand all your concerns, but really, we don't have a place to stay. We don't eat very much or take up much space. We'll work for room and board, please Mr. Russo." Eden said. In Renni's opinion, Eden sounded exactly like her mother. She watched Eden as she tried to charm Mr. Russo into letting the girls stay. The charm didn't work on Renni, but she'd seen Bjorn and now Eden use the charm on people. She knew that it had something to do with the glimmering of the eyes and the conveying of thoughts. It put people into a trance like state.

"Look girls, we're willing to give you jobs, but I don't know that we can just randomly let you stay here. I mean we don't know the first thing about you, and I'm sure you're nice girls, but really." Eden glanced at Renni.

_The charms not working, what do I do?_

_I'll take it from here._ Renni stepped in finally. "You know what Mr. Russo, it's ok, don't worry about it. We'll just look for somewhere else to work. If were gonna have to try to get an apartment." She paused. "You know what, I just remembered a man who called himself E-Ray that was willing to give us jobs. He said we'd have a place to stay most nights, and get to travel the town. I think he said we could make up to 50 dollars an hour." She smiled and stuck out her hand, preparing to push one of the memories of one of the pimps that had approached the girls. She gave him just a quick blurb of the image as she pushed the thoughts on him. _Eden, is your charm still on her?_

_As far as I know, why? Renni, what are you doing? Stop pushing me._

_Just trust me. _The girls bustled towards the door. Eden was still a little confused, but Renni hoped that if she gave him enough guilt and Eden's charm was still on her, the girls would have exactly what they want. Renni gave one last glance over her shoulder at Mr. Russo with a small little pause, as if she were hoping that he would change his mind, and when he didn't, she looked down dejected. Eden had stopped as well, and was about to ask Renni a question but the other brunette haired girl pushed her towards the door.

_Renesmee Cullen what are you doing?_ _Stop pushing me. _

_Stop complaining and go. I know what I'm doing. _

_No, I don't think you know what you're doing._ She tried to grind her feet into the ground, but Renesmee kept pushing.

_I do this all the time to Uncle Emmett._ They were almost to the door when Mr. Russo, after receiving a harsh look from his wife, called them back. _See. I know what I'm doing._ They stopped and walked back to him. "Yes, Mr. Russo." Renni said. She had to suppress her smile, knowing that her plan would work.

"Look, girls, we'll give you jobs, and we'll find you a good place to stay." He sighed. His wife elbowed him suddenly. "Fine, you can stay here—" He looked at her. "Until we find you a suitable place." He gave his wife a triumphant look feeling that he had somehow pervaded her strange, intense desire to keep in the girls.

"Oh girls, Welcome, consider me your new mommy." She reached out her arms and hugged the girls to her. "Oh, you poor things, you look half starved. Come here and let me feed you." She pulled them to the bar, grabbed two sandwiches, and placed it in front of them. "Here, eat, you're both to skinny. Oh you have to meet your knew siblings." She crooned. She was practically bubbling while she was walking around looking for her three children, leaving Eden and Renni to discuss the happenstance.

"Well, that was—I'm not sure what that was." Eden said with a sigh. "How'd you get him to agree?"

"I pushed a thought on him, and I hoped your charm was still on her." Renni looked down at the sandwich in front of her and sighed. "I'm really hungry. Once we're settled in, promise me we'll go hunting, Eden." She sighed. "Gardner?" She said finally. Eden turned and looked at her with a small smirk gracing her full mouth.

"Well, my name is Eden. So you know the Garden of Eden." She laughed. It was that earthy throaty sound. Renni joined in a laugh which sounded like light tinkling sound. It got a few looks from a few people walking by at that moment. People didn't sound like that, but then again, between the two of them there was only one fourth human.

"Tell me about it." Eden replied. They were silent for a minute and tried to eat the sandwiches in front of them. The older they were getting the more difficult it became to eat human food. Renni could barely eat it any more. She remembered how spoiled she was at home and sighed. Carlisle used to bring her blood occasionally as a treat. She missed that. The treats came less and less since the birth of Eden. Renni sighed. She turned around and watched the people around her. In the booth to the far left, she saw a couple. The girl was blushing bring a bright pink tint to her cheeks. Renni licked her lips at the thought of the blood coursing under those cheeks. Then she thought about what the boy was saying to make the girl blush. Her mind wandered to Jacob, wondering what he was doing right now. She looked at the guy and tuned her ears in to listen to the conversation. They were talking about their 2 week anniversary. She laughed. _I wonder what it's like going through your life looking for someone to love._ Jacob loved her from the moment she was born practically, so she never had to search. A young man came into her line of view. He was tall, had had blue eyes and dark messy hair. He was glaring at them, making her feel uncomfortable. She fidgeted in her seat for a few minutes she turned back towards the bar. She hated the way he stared at her. _Eden, what are you thinking about?_

_Nothing much, I'm hungry. I think we have to go hunting tonight. What boy is bothering you?_

Renni turned to her and glared at her friend. "Have you been listening this entire time?" She snapped. Eden shrugged her narrow shoulders and glace backward to see what boy was making her sister uncomfortable. It was that same boy from earlier. She turned completely around and looked at him darkly. She wasn't about to allow him to make her coven sister uncomfortable.

"Justin, come here." Mrs. Russo said. The boy moved towards them quickly. He didn't take his eyes off Eden, or Renni for that matter. Eden quickly turned around to look at Mrs. Russo. She had two other young children standing next to her, a young girl about sixteen, and then a young boy about 14. "Justin, Alex, Max, I want you to meet Eden and Renni Gardener. They're going to be working here as well as living with us."

"WHAT?" was the collective statement from the children.

"Mom, what's going on, we can't just randomly let them live with us!" Justin said. He glared at Eden, who held her own. There was something about this girl that he didn't like. Something ethereal about her that made her stand out from the crowd. It wasn't that she wasn't beautiful; because she was. Her skin was just flawless alabaster white and her eyes were a bright azure color unlike any he'd ever seen before. Her long blonde hair hung like spun platinum silk at her waist and over the narrow shoulders. Those things made her beautiful and alluring, but he was scared of her. He knew it had something to do with the fact that he'd seen her in those visions. It unnerved him that she was working her way into his family.

"Well, as long as I don't have to give up my room, I don't care." Alex said. In fact she did care, but she wasn't going to let anyone know. She was still looking over these two strange girls and wondering why her parents, who never wanted anyone near the family because it might reveal the family secret, would let two strangers randomly move in with them. There was something wrong. She could tell, but she didn't know what was wrong with them. The blonde just looked creepy, but the brunette seemed to be a little more normal. Still she scared Alex. There was something wrong with these girls, but what could it have been.


	5. Chapter 5

Hey guys, I want to thank you all for the reviews and encourage you to write more. It inspires me to know taht people are generous enough to take the time to review. :) Anyway, also I noticed that I hadn't a disclaimer so here it is. Me no steal characters, you know steal characters with out permision. lol anyway, have a happy reading and REVIEW!!!

TTFN Baby Turtle

Chapter 5: Wonder

Eden stood at the entrance of the sub shop sweeping. She ignored the constant stare of the eldest Russo boy, Justin. He watched her carefully glaring ever once in a while. Eden sighed. She was purposely blocking out his thoughts. She knew what they were just by the irate look on his face. In the first ten minutes of their introductions she'd got ideas of the personalities of the kids. The one she heard the most was Alex; her thoughts projected more. The next one was Max, but she immediately tuned his thoughts out. He was—she didn't have a nice word to describe the way she thought of him. Justin was the quietest; Eden had to strain to hear his thoughts. But then she realized that he wore a lot of his emotions on his face. Right now, he was glaring at her narrowing his eyes. Eden finally turned around and snapped at him. "What?"

"I don't trust you." He said automatically.

"I can't really understand why?"

"How'd you hear about us?" He asked suspiciously. Eden sighed and stopped sweeping for a moment.

"Maybe, because there was a sign advertising that your family wanted help." She leaned against the broom and looked at him. He narrowed his eyes, raised an eye brow, and pursed his lips at her.

"Then why did they let you live with us?" He pointed a finger at her accusingly. Eden just stared at him and rolled her eyes. She went back to sweeping the floor.

"Ask your parents, it was their decision." She told him. Eden opened the door and went outside to the front porch to sweep. She kicked the snow up around her making small flurries. She smiled to herself; she liked the snow. It was a piece of home with her constantly, and it complimented her very well. The blue and grey hues of the skies fitted into her personal color scheme of pale whites, and blues. She continued sweeping, not feeling the cold, and she didn't realize that she was supposed to until a young red headed girl wearing a ridiculous coat made of a stuffed polar bear passed by and gave her a weird look. Eden looked around noticed every one wearing heavy parkas. She looked down at the flimsy long sleeved tee shirt she was wearing, going back inside to get a coat she laughed; adjusting to the human world was going to be a difficult transition.

Renni sighed as she prepared to bus more tables. She really didn't want to work, grabbed a few more plates and then sat down. She wasn't very interested in working. She'd rather be shopping. She sighed and just continued to sit at the table. Her golden brown eyes looked at her nails and noticed the polish slowly chipping off. I need to paint my nails. As she considered what color she would paint her nails she saw her coven sister go outside to sweep. Renni sometimes thought that Eden only carried the weight of the world on her because she was melodramatic, but being in this close to humans, and as hungry as she was, Renni could begin the feel some of the weight that Eden said she felt. Renni sighed and ignored her hunger once again for the sight of a polar bear; well it didn't smell like a polar bear at least. Finally, the top of the polar bear came off and revealed a young girl about six teen with red hair. She took off her coat and hung it over her arm to revel a blue dress, blue stockings and shoes that had noses, polar bear ears and googlly eyes. She stared as she walked up to the middle Russo girl, Alex. She looked back down at her nails and started picking the polish off gently. Aunt Alice would kill me for doing this. She thought with a smirk of her prissy but wonderful Aunt. She was bored with that and decided to listen in on Alex and the other girl's conversation.

"I don't know, Harper. It was like my parents were under a spell. I mean my dad freaked out because I told you, why would he allow strangers in our house." Alex said tersely. She looked over at Renni sitting in a booth pretending to clear the plates. She got up and took the tub to the kitchen. Alex was quiet for a minute while she passed by them. She didn't want the girl to hear them talking about her. The girl cast a glance and smiled at them; Alex didn't make a face, while Harper approached the girl and stuck out her hand enthusiastically.

"Hi I'm Harper!" She said with a huge smile. Renni looked at the girl and inhaled—big mistake. This girl smelled delicious, completely and utterly delicious. Renni imagined for a moment that this is what Sunday lunch smelled like to a ravished human. She closed her eyes and held her breathe, feeling a fire building at the back of her throat. The burning sensation brought her back to reality and she realized that she was standing there in the middle of the sub shop and the girl was still holding out her hand. Renni cleared her throat and smiled feeling a little bit of pink rise to her cheeks.

"Hi, I'm Renni Gardener." She said. She tucked the tub filled with glass plates and cups under arm and shook Harper's hand, smiling politely. "The Russo's were kind enough to hire me and my cousin, Eden on here, and give us a home." Harper just stared at Renni. There was an awkward silence between them and Renni just laughed. "Well, it was nice to meet you." She said and then walked away. That girl was so weird. She thought.

Harper walked back to Alex with a confused look on her face. "You're right; she is weird." The girls continued to talk quietly between themselves, as Renni walked back to the kitchen to wash the dishes.

Justin was finally tired of staring at Eden and asking her questions, her responses were getting monosyllabic and sometimes she completely ignored him. He then began to think that there was something wrong with his parents. Ever since the two girls showed up, he'd continually kept seeing them pacing in the living room with worried expressions. As he considered the vision and what it could mean, he thought about having visions all together. He'd finally come to terms with his visions, even if there was no way to control them. The only time it was really bad was when he'd phase out at school and completely miss the question. He was still searching through the tombs of books trying to find some explanation, but so far there was none. He was feeling a little hopeless. He'd stop trying to talk to people about it, because every time it happened, no one believed him. He sighed and went into the kitchen. There he saw Renni. She was so different from Eden. Renni had long curly dark brown hair and the big brown eyes, and her skin had a healthy peachy glow to it. Somehow they were cousins though. He stared at her as she put the dishes into the scalding water, humming tunelessly. He suddenly got an idea. He tried to walk up to Renni as nonchalantly as possible, but his stride was more of a self confident swagger.

"Sooooo Renni, right?"

"Yes, Justin." Renni said flashing a smile. She was hoping that he wouldn't stay long. She was so hungry. His blood was flowing so strongly, his jugular pulses with each fleeting heart beat. She glanced at it once last time before looking directly in his eyes. "Can I help you?"

"I want to ask you a few questions." He said. In the back of her mind, Renni thought that if this were an Anime cartoon he would have whipped out a detective coat and a notepad. It made her laugh and she wished Eden were around so that she could share her thoughts.

While he watched Renni's gaze float to his neck he wondered if there was something there. He slid his hand up and wiped his neck of, but there was nothing there. It actually unnerved him to see her with that—hungry glint in her eyes. "So where are you guys from?"

Renni balked for a minute not knowing the answer. She and Eden hadn't mapped out every question that someone could ask them. She tried not to stammer and just smiled. Eden, I need some help. She thought. Suddenly she was aware of Eden's presence in the room and turned to look at her. "Oregon, a city called Ashland" Renni said. Thanks. Eden smiled and walked into the kitchen.

"Justin, shouldn't you be working? We're not terrorists, so you don't need to interrogate us." Eden smiled, grabbed a few more plates to take out. Renni smile at Justin, and turned back to her dishes. If she wasn't careful she'd find herself attacking him in a few minutes. She was getting hungrier and hungrier by the second. The warm dish water was distracting enough for her to not stare at the blood thrumming through him, and the swish of the water and the dishes clanking helped her tune out the constant lub dub of his heart.

"Anyway, Justin, I'm gonna get back to work if you don't mind." She said as she sprayed some food off a dish. "You should too, I thought I saw your dad lurking around looking for you and wondering why you were slacking and Alex was actually working." She looked at him from the corner of his eye. Justin arched one eyebrow and pursed his lips. Renni just kept working wondering how he would react. From what she'd gathered by watching them and Eden had told them by their thoughts. Justin was a goody two shoes. Just like Eden, they should get along fine. She hoped he couldn't resist the need to be better than his sister. He uncrossed his arms and grabbed a clean apron and took a few more plates out.

I'm not a goody two shoes. Eden snapped the thought in Renni's mind. Renni laughed to herself.

Come on, Eden, get out of my head. You know you're not supposed to eavesdrop on peoples personal thoughts. From somewhere in the building she heard Eden laugh softly, and then both girls just went back to work. Each hoping that they could keep up the façade of being human.

Business had slowed down and there was only the Russos and the Gardeners in the shop. Mrs. Russo was leading the girls up stairs to show them the room they would be staying in. It was Justin's room, since he was the most easily moved. He was going to share a room with Max (even though he thoroughly protested. They were girls so they should share a room with Alex.) It didn't work because all Alex did was turn to Mr. Russo and say "Daddy?" Then Justin found himself moving all of his belonging into Max's disgusting room. That was going to be the first order of business—Max was going to clean his room and keep it completely clean.

"So girls, do you have any things that you need to get?" Mrs. Russo asked as she showed them the closet.

"Uh, yes, we'll run and get them from our hotel tonight." Renni responded look at Eden while rubbing her stomach. Eden nodded and pointed to her wrist where blue veins stood out resiliently against her skin and then her nose, asking Renni if she could smell the blood of people around her. It always seemed the hungrier Renni was the more she would smell the blood of those around. Renni nodded vigorously.

"Oh, Jerry will take you girls over there later. You shouldn't be wandering around the dangerous city." She cupped Renni's chin in a motherly fashion and stepped back in a little bit of shock as Renni's view clouded her mind. She narrowed her eyes and stared wonderingly at Renni and then laughed nervously. "Well, I'm going to let you two settle in." The girls just smiled and watched her scurry out.

As soon as the door was shut Eden backhanded Renni's arm, forgetting that it was going to make a loud smacking noise. "OW!" Renni said in a low hissing voice. "What?"

"What did you do?" Eden ground out. She was feeling exasperated. Any wrong move and the girls cover would be blown and then they were back on their way to Forks and a very angry family. The girls were used to the sounds of vampire skin meeting vampire skin so they didn't think anything of the loud noise that it made until Mrs. Russo rushed back into the room.

"Is everything all right?" She asked breathlessly. Eden and Renni stopped arguing for a moment and looked bewildered at her. "I heard a loud noise; are you both all right?" She asked still heaving in deep breaths. Eden still a little puzzled only stared at her, but Renni realized what was going on, mostly because she still had the tingling feeling of Eden's blow on her arm.

"Oh we're fine Mrs. Russo." She said smiling at her gently and batting her eye lashes. "I just fell into the closet door. I can be so clumsy sometimes." She rubbed her head a little bit, and tried to laugh it off. Mrs. Russo just walked into the room.

"Aw, sweetie, do you want me to look at it?" She said moving towards Renni. Renni laughed and smiled a little harder.

"No, I'm ok."

Mr. Russo followed by Max ran into the room. "What happened? It sounded like someone was doing demolition on the walls!" he shouted. Renni just laughed and pointed at Eden.

"She pushed me." Eden's eyes widened at the accusation.

"I did not!" She shouted. She glared at Renni then realized that she was trying to make the situation light so that no more questions would get asked. "Not hard at least," she continued.

"Ok, well, girls, if you're all right were gonna go back down stairs and make sure everything is all right with the shop." Mr. Russo said as he left the room, Mrs. Russo smiled at the girls and walked after him. The two vampires stood there just smiling waiting for everyone to leave. The only person left was the youngest Russo. He had a thoughtful look on his face and was stroking his chin.

"All right little boy, you can leave now." Eden said. He just looked at her.

"Have you ever noticed that pineapples are nothing like their names?"

"What?" Renni said. "What are you talking about?"

"No really, they are made of pine and they aren't apples so why do they call them 'pineapples'." He continued. Renni just rolled her eyes and walked away. She glanced at Eden who was turning the boy around and pushing him out the door. He was still complaining about pineapples. Eden sighed and shoved him out the door.

While all this was going on up stairs, Alex was downstairs looking for her brother. She was standing by the meat fridge waiting for him to walk in the kitchen. She saw him round the corner and sucked in a breath. "Justin!" She whispered. "Pssst, Justin, come here." He turned around and saw her motioning him to come closer. When he completely ignored her, Alex whispered a little louder. She did it a few more times, but he continued to ignore her. Finally, tired of calling him, Alex stomped to her brother and grabbed his arm. "JUSTIN!" She snapped, jerking him towards the refrigerator. "come on!" She dragged him to the freezer.

"Alex, if you're going to coat me in pudding again I'm not falling for it." He said digging his heals into the ground and trying to twist out of his sisters grasp. He finally achieved it, crossed his arms, and glared at her. "It took me three weeks to get that stuff out of my hair last time."

"I'm not trying to trick you Justin. It's about Mom and Dad. They're acting really weird. Since when do they let random strange girls in our house?" She said. Justin sighed and nodded. "Besides, I need you to help me with a spell. I want to figure out what's going on with them." She opened the freezer door and walked into the lair. Justin followed her.

"Can't you just make one up?" He asked sharply.

"Yes, but I want you here so I can blame it on you if it goes wrong." She retorted. Justin rolled his blue eyes and walked towards the door. Alex grabbed his arm yet again. "No," she whined. "I'm just kidding Justin. Just wait a second, okay?" She sighed and pulled out her wand. "We want to see right through everything these witches do." She waved her wand and waited for a moment. Nothing happened—to her at least. Justin had a vision of a stone wall and Eden sitting on the far side cradling her head in her hand. It was the same as every other one. All he could here was her repeating his name, or in the very least when Alex shook him out of his trance like state that's all he could remember.

Meanwhile, upstairs as Eden and Renni settled in, Eden stopped and laughed. Renni just looked at her strangely, but then laughed as well, as she saw the mental image Eden received from Justin. She didn't mind the fact that she was not searching for his mind, or even listening to anyone. It just showed in her head as if she were he watching his sister cast a spell. "Oh, how cute, they have wands and everything." Renni giggled. Eden allowed herself to giggle too.

"so we are living with a family of wizards. It's no great wonder I suppose."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: A funny thing happened—

Ari stood in the window watching Jacob, in his burly wolf form pace back and forth in the yard. He was truly beginning to wear a path in the grass where he'd repeated the heavy gait. She sighed and noticed Leah approaching the window. "Any luck?" Ari asked knowing that the answer was going to be no. There was never any luck in her life, especially when it came to her children.

Leah had bags under her eyes and the crestfallen look on her face only detracted from her as well. "I'm sorry, Ari, but no, we can't even track them as far as Seatle." She replied. Ari just nodded and looked back out the window. Jacob was gone, but somewhere in the distance he was howling, everyone could hear it.

"I'm really sorry for Jacob. He's beside himself, really, I never seen him like this not even over Bella." Leah said. She was standing next to Ari in the window both of them were looking out across the heavy forest. "He could really do with some cheering up, but every time I try to get near him, I end up with a broken bone." Leah grumbled showing her arm which Ari could still see the healing marks on. She smiled wryly.

"I think we could all do with some cheering up." She said. Both women stood there quietly for a few minutes. Then Leah heard a rustle, from the corner of her eyes, she tried to see if Ari had heard it. A vampiric stench that she knew belonged to Emmett reached her nose. She looked behind her and saw him sneaking up on Ari. Though she figured it wasn't a good idea for him, Leah kept quiet. Ari seemed lost in her own thought, so Leah figured that the blonde wouldn't notice. She was correct. Emmett managed to sneak up behind Ari and grip her in a bone crushing bear hug. In turn, Ari shrieked and with all her power shoved him away. The next thing Emmett knew, he was on the other side of the room staring at Leah and Ari upside down. "Emmett!" Ari shrieked, her usually low voice reaching a shrill height. "What on earth were you thinking?"

"You said you could use a little cheering up, I thought I'd help." He replied slowly picking himself up and surveying the damage. It wasn't to extensive, but Esme wasn't going to be pleased with him. He knew better than to sneak up on Ari, especially lately, she was so high strung. He glanced at Leah and offered her a rakish smile.

"So you though that scaring me half out of my mind was the best way to do it?" Ari replied sharply, her voice still a little shrill. "Emmett you're lucky that I didn't kill you." In light of the present situation of group, death seemed highly unlikely—though they all knew that she was fully capable of doing permanent damage. It still seemed a little funny though-- the thin woman intimidating the burly vampire.

"Well, it was something!" He snorted. Ari was about to retort when she saw a breathless Charlie burst into the room.

"What's the matter?" He gasped for another breath. The three other worldly beings turned to gape at him as well, and suddenly he felt very foolish. He glanced over at Ari who was staring intently at him. He had to suppress a thought of what had happened between them almost three years ago. He saw the color rise to her cheeks and realized that she'd seen or heard his thought. He bowed his head and grumbled an apology and left. Ari sighed and let a breath, not realizing she'd been holding it. Charlie's thoughts made her nervous or something about the sudden memory made her blush. Obviously her reaction was noticeable, because Leah and Emmett approached her.

"What was that about?" Emmett asked, smirking. It took a lot to make Ari blush so it must have been something interesting. He clapped her back making her fall forward. "Was ol' Charlie having some thoughts?" He began laughing wildly. Ari's blush only turned a deeper shade or red as she sucked in another breathe.

"Something like that." She muttered. It only took Ari a second to turn from flustered to completely in control. She turned to Emmett glaring, hoping to put him off from any other questions. "Now, Emmett, I'm sure that there is something that you could be doing other than torturing me. I'm not in the mood and I'm inclined to be violent right now." He looked at her for a second to see if she were serious. When her angry expression didn't fade, Emmett backed away and scuttled out of the room, once again leaving Leah and Ari alone.

"So what is the deal between you and Charlie?" Leah asked. Ari blinked a moment.

"That's very impertinent, Leah; I don't know what you're talking about." Air replied haughtily. Her low voice fell back onto his old British accent that came out occasionally when she was trying to seem overly cool and collected. Leah sighed and rolled her dark brown eyes. "I have no idea what you're talking about." She said moving out of the room. Leah just laughed at her.

"Yeah right, and I'm the queen of Sheba, come on, I know that you and Charlie didn't like each other to begin with, but there's something more than that, like you always block his thoughts whenever he's around you." She said.

"Not so," Ari countered. "Charlie's a lot like Bella; his thoughts are automatically quieter than everyone else's." Ari opened the door, but Leah moved in front of it. The tall, thin Indian girl glared at Ari. "Leah, if you know what's healthy for you, you will move."

"Oh, common Ari, you know you wouldn't hurt me."

"Leah, drop it!" Ari said stepping back from the door. Leah knew at this point that Ari could and would possibly forcibly remove her. The most terrifying sight Leah had ever seen was Ari when she was attempting to rip the skeleton from Bjorn for lying to them. When she got angry like that, her face looked absolutely soulless and Leah often wondered what went on in Ari's head when that happened. "Quileute, if you know what's good for you, you-will-move." Ari said in a low angry tone.

Leah was a little scared for a moment. She quickly moved pulling the door open behind her as she moved away. "Dang, Arimathea, calm down, I was just kidding around with you. Emmett's right, you need to lighten up." The blonde woman huffed for a moment and stormed out of the room. She got a few steps out of the door and saw Charlie looking at her. His thick brown brow's knitted close together. He stared at her for a few minutes and mouthed "are you all right?"

All right, She thought petulantly, I'm never all right. She looked at Charlie and sighed. "It's a lovely day out Charlie, and I could do with a walk. Would you take a turn with me in the forest?" She asked. He stared at her.

Charlie looked at Ari. A beautiful day in forks? Not a chance. There was something on her mind, he could tell. He hoped it wasn't what he thought it was. About three years ago, they'd had an incident, one that was an embarrassment to them both. He nodded and followed her down the stairs. Esme was watching television and holding a still heaving Bella. It seemed that Bella cried daily for Nessie--not that Ari blamed her. If Ari had her way, she'd be the heaving mess and leave everyone else to deal with it. But as the coven protector, she couldn't. She had only cried in private moments, to the point that she would hide from Bjorn if she thought he might see her.

"Where are you two going?" Esme asked, looking over her shoulder noticing that both of them grabbing their winter coats.

"For a walk!" Alice chimed. Ari sighed and suddenly Alice completely lost her vision of what the two were going to talk about. She frowned and glanced at them, wondering what could be so important that Ari that she would hide it from the coven. She sighed and went back to the kitchen. Ari nodded and walked out of the house, and Charlie followed.

It was rainy, but then it was always rainy in Forks. Ari opened the umbrella and waited for Charlie to shut the door and join her under the bright red umbrella. It looked odd to see her under the umbrella, she didn't match it, not like a normal person would. Ari always looked like someone lost in time, but then someone who was lost in time would. He stood under the umbrella with her. She was nearly his height, only a few inches shorter. The boots she wore made her look him dead in the eyes.

"Come, let's away." She said looping her arms through his and they began the slow walk away.

It was no secret that Arimathea and Charlie couldn't stand each other. From the moment she'd met him she'd wanted to protect everyone from him. He'd felt like she was going to bust up whatever happiness the Cullen's had accumulated. She was a beautiful woman that Carlisle had brought into the family. It seemed they trusted her more than they trusted him. It was jealousy on his part and just natural caution on her.

After walking for a while, the couple stopped under a tall tree. They kept the umbrella up so that the continual drops of water wouldn't get in their faces. Ari inhaled the air around her deeply, and welcomed the cold freezing that rushed into her lungs. She closed her eyes. "Memories are a tricky thing, Charlie. We remember things differently from what they were." She lifted her arm and gently placed her cold thin fingers on the side of his face. They both closed their eyes and her mind raced back to years ago.

Ari was unsure of what this burly vampire wanted and what he was doing near her coven. She could tell something was off about him; it was in the way he carried himself. He could smile and smirk no matter what was going around him. A tame sort of chaos billowed around him like a light hazy fog. It unnerved her—he unnerved her. His crimson red eyes bored into her and seemed to make her heart catch a beat. And when he even breathed her name, she felt her body go into a state of suspended animation.

She was sitting across from him at the dinner table as she and Nessie ate a late lunch. He just sat there having a polite conversation with the little half breed, knowing that her guardian watching his every move waiting for a reason to make him into a ribbon of vampire flesh. He carefully guarded his mind around her and just paid attention to Nessie. Ari just watched lazily and at one point went to the kitchen, her mind ever vigilant for Nessie. When she walked back into the room, only Bjorn was there sitting at the table smiling.

"You know, Ari," he said in a lazy voice, "You seem so lonely."

Ari stood in the door way, and after she'd gained control of her faculties again, she glared at him. "I'm not lonely at all. I have a coven to keep me company." He leaned forward and looked at her in the eyes as he pulled out a chair for her.

"Why don't you sit down miss?" He motioned to a chair. Ari looked at him suspiciously, but sat down. "Really now, you look like you could use someone who would love you." She felt for a moment that she really did need some one to love her, but then something snapped. She got an image of her mate from years ago. Ari ruffled at his statement.

"I have this coven for that sir, and you do not know me well enough to decide what I do and do not need." He leaned a little closer and allowed his eyes to remain direct contact with her own blue eyes.

"I'm sure you do, miss, but then, you need a man. You will fall in love with the next man you see." He said. It seemed like a strange statement to make, and somewhere deep inside Ari knew that something was wrong with it. She couldn't resist it though. She had to comply with what he said. Her mind fogged over and all she could imagine were mists swirling around in her head and there had never been anything before this man and there would never be anything after. She was compelled to do as he said. Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Ari jumped out of her chair and nearly knocked it over. She felt her pulse race a little as she bolted for the door, and threw it open. Charlie stood there, his hands jammed into his pocket, looking away. His lower lip slightly pouted under his thick brown mustache as if he had something on his mind. He brought his brown eyed gaze up to hers and for a split second they both got the image of a passionate kiss. Ari sucked in a breath unable to tell where the thought came from. She looked down and glanced at him from the corner of her eye, barely restraining herself from touching him. He was blushing furiously and rubbing the back of his neck. Ari smirked to herself. He was so handsome when he blushed. It made him seem so human—so decidedly delectable that she wanted to throw herself into his arms and ravish him.

"Hello Charlie," she said in her low earthy voice.

"Arimethea," He replied curtly. "I'm here to see Nessie." He said. Ari gripped a little tighter to the door handle to keep herself from sinking to the ground like a shapeless puddle when he said her name. She steeled her nerves the way she always did and managed to speak.

"She's upstairs." She replied. "She'll be down in a minute. Won't you come in?" Ari moved aside to allow him passage, which he warily accepted. He scrutinized her for a moment searching for the catch. She was never this nice to him—in fact she was never even cordial to him. A beat passed before he moved from the front stoop to the foyer. Ari moved towards the living room. "You can come sit down you know." She said holding out a lean pale white arm to the living room.

"I'm just fine here." He said darkly, shooting uncertain glances at her. He didn't like moody people, and Arimethea's ever steady hatred for him was a pleasant constant. The only pleasant thing he could imagine about her; the sudden politeness really made him nervous as he stood there waiting for his granddaughter to come down.

From Ari's end she was having a hard time restraining herself from touching him. She wanted to reach out and grab him by the lean muscled arms and slam him against the wall and take advantage of him there. Some part of Ari, suddenly revolted at the thought of touching him, but at the same time that voice quenched and there was only the animal desire to take him then and there. Nessie came down the stairs and flitted into the living room.

"All right Ari, I'm ready. Hi Grandpa!" she shouted running and throwing her arms around Charlie. She came to his chest, but at this point in his life, he'd stopped asking questions. He hugged her back and kissed the top of her head.

"Hey sweetie," he smiled at her and then looked to Ari. "We'll be back in a little bit." He said. With a curt nod to Ari and Bjorn who'd come into the room only moments before. Ari nodded her consent, and moved to give Nessie a kiss. She placed a hand on Charlie's arm.

"Have fun." She smiled and allowed her hand to linger, until he pulled away sharply from her cold grasp. Ari watched him walk with a small smirk on her face.

"Charlie's not a half bad mate." Bjorn said. Ari's felt her entire body stiffen as she just looked at the shut door. Her mind came back from the foggy fantasy world she'd been living in just a few minutes ago. She felt the color rise to her cheeks and refused to look at Bjorn.

"He's all right, I suppose. I don't care much for him." She retorted turning and walking quickly back to the kitchen.

Charlie and Ari pulled apart. "Well that explains a whole lot." Charlie said with a sigh. "That's why you acted that way then?"

"As far as I know, the rest of it we will have to pull from your mind Charlie, I don't remember anything accept for the end of the happenstance." She said. Ari cast a wistful glance at the ground as she thought of that day. She was never quite sure of how she got there or even what exactly she was doing. The only thing she knew is that there was red lingerie involved. Charlie scuffed the ground with his shoe.

"Do we have to look at that?" He asked, avoiding her piercing blue eyes.

"I think it would be best if we did Charlie. I don't remember and it might help me not be so flustered when I'm around you and you think of it." She stepped forward and reached out to touch him again. Charlie screwed up his face and coughed. The memory was awkward. "Charlie, it's best if I know what happened, plus I'm curious about it. It's hard for me not to remember something that you remember so vividly." Finally, Charlie gave in and with a sigh he stepped forward and let her place her hands back on his temple. Ari's mind rushed a little bit as the perspective changed. She was seeing everything from Charlie's point of view.

Sue looked good today. I liked her food. She's good cook. He thought as he came up the front walk and opened the front door. He had spent the day with Billy and then they'd had a late lunch over at Sue Clearwater's. He really admired her. She was a good down to earth woman. He smiled to himself as he hung up his hat, and scarf. He walked into the living room and saw the last person he expected sitting on his comfy chair.

"Arimaethea?" He shouted, taken aback by her sudden presence.

"Hello, Charlie" She drawled softly, her thin pink mouth curling up in a smirk. Charlie stood there, paralyzed as he glanced over the thin blonde woman. There was something off about her demeanor. Of course, in Charlie's opinion there was always something off about Ari, but this was different. She looked less like a watchful mother keeping an eye on her young, and more like a—well a cat that was keen on playing a game with it's food. He glanced over her body to see what she was wearing. She was wearing a long coat and a pair of red high heels. He knitted his brow as she stood up. "Charlie, I've a confession to make." She walked over to him swaying her hips in small circles. "I've got to confess that I've been bad and I think I need to be taken to jail." She murmured seductively. Her low voice tickling his ears drums. There was a part of him that was enjoying the attention, but the majority of him revolted. He drew back and just looked at her.

"What on earth is wrong with you Arimaeathea?" He yelled.

"Nothing you can't fix, Charlie." Charlie just glared at her and gritted his teeth. Charlie roughly grabbed her by the arm and dragged her to the door. With his free hand he jerked the door open.

"Get out!" He shouted preparing to throw her out the door. He didn't expect what happened next. With surprising strength, Ari launched herself at him slamming him into the door and then slamming the door shut. Her body pinned him against the door and the force of her maneuver made him gasp for air. He just stared into her blue eyes that now seemed possessed.

"Listen, Swann, I'm going to get what I want—I won't take no for an answer." With that, Ari swung him around and pushed him on the stairs. Her coat fell open to reveal a bright red satin baby doll. For a moment, Charlie had to appreciate her figure. She was long and slender, but with the obvious definition of muscle just under the skin. Her long blonde hair hung around her like a pale while aura. She pulled him too his feet breaking any trance he'd held on her and force him up the stairs backwards. Charlie, entirely unsure of what to do, complied. Finally they reached the top of the stairs where she managed to get him out of his jacket and shirt. Her hands felt cold on his skin, in fact, everything about her felt cold, but then he realized that she wasn't wearing much and the heat wasn't on in the house.

The drama seemed to crescendo once they got into his bedroom. At that point, Ari pushed him up against the nearest wall and mashed her mouth on his on a long and harsh kiss. Charlie didn't respond, and hoped it felt like kissing a dead fish for her. After a minute, she pulled away and glared at him, her thin eye brows drawing down around her large blue eyes. She slapped him with enough force to turn his head. Then she pushed herself up on her tip toe more and pinned him there by pressing her knee against the wall. She shrugged the coat off and cupped his face towards her.

"Charlie, don't fight me. I'm a force of nature." She whispered. She leaned in and kissed him a little more delicately. This time, Charlie allowed himself to enjoy it somewhat. He didn't want jerk away or push her way. He even let his hands rest on her hips. Seemingly, he took control and flipped them around until he had her pinned against the wall. Ari didn't oppose to this she just continued to kiss him and run her fingers through his brown hair. The pair was a little lost until a polite cough interrupted them. They looked up to see Edward standing in the bedroom door way. Charlie yanked himself away from Ari. The blonde suddenly came to her sense and shrieked.

"What's going on?" She said looking at Edward and then to Charlie. "Where's your clothes?" Feeling cold and exposed, Ari looked down and shrieked even higher. "Where—where are my clothes? What's going on? Stop looking at me you idiot!" She yelled. Spying a familiar coat on the floor, Ari dove for it and hastily pulled it on. "You both should be ashamed of yourself!" She huffed, stomping past Edward and down the stairs. They heard the door slam and Edward cringed at the unladylike thoughts she had.

After a few minutes, he looked at Charlie, who was still bewildered by the whole situation. "I'm not even going to ask, Charlie, it's not my business, but please, don't Ari off. We have to live with her." He said curtly shutting the door. Charlie was left alone; suddenly feeling bare as the realization of what was happening dawned on him he crossed his arms over his chest and went to look for his shirt.

Both people felt relief as Ari pulled her hand from Charlie's head. Their faces were crimson red with blush. "Well, I guess that explains a lot." Ari said quietly looking down refusing to make eye contact. "It was Bjorn, you know."

"Yeah, I kinda got that. We'll I'm glad to know that you don't have the—well the hots for me." Charlie tried to make joke but that only earned him a hard look. "Anyway, so what do you think of it now."

"I think that we should both laugh and get on with our lives. I now understand your thoughts, so I have no cause to be embarrassed about them any more, though you can understand my position in the situation is precarious so try to keep them to yourself ok?"

"All right," Charlie replied. Ari stopped him from speaking any further and turned her head to the left.

"Alice," she said softly. Charlie immediately knew what she meant and stopped his thoughts as well. The pixie like vampire walked into the clearing and smiled at them.

"There you guys are!" She said lightly with a giggle. "We were worried. Is everything ok?" She asked, suddenly at their sides and linking arms with them both.

"Yes, Charlie and I were working some things out since we're going to be working so closely now." Ari responded, smiling. She was always hard pressed to be harsh with Alice. The short vampire girl was like cream, whipped cream. That would have been interesting. She thought, even though the only person who could hear that thought was Charlie. He glared at her over the top of Alice's spiky black hair. Ari just smirked and continued walking. It was amazing what the little physic vampire could miss, even when it was going on in front of h


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 Feel

Their plan was going smashingly well. They were able to get a family to let them into their lives. They were even going to school. Everything was going to plan, except the one thing they hadn't planned on—hunger. It was brandishing them with a sword it would acutely jab into their stomachs. They felt the hunger every moment of every day. It was effecting Renni the most. Usually when Harper was around, the heavy-set red-head had thick, sweet blood that was close to the top of her skin. At any given moment Renni could almost feel herself launch across the room and snap Harper's neck. She barely stayed the urge. At school it was the worst, everyone's blood was always close to their skin and that's when it was the most potent from being in the hot stuffy classrooms or running into to teachers in the hallway and blushes of embarrassment flushed their faces.

She and Eden were sitting at the back of a class. At some point during class, Renni reached over and gripped Ari's hand as tightly as she could. She was almost to her limit with the blood swirling around her so vibrantly. She'd taken Eden's hand just to redirect some of the feelings and use Eden's memories of never eating human blood to replace her own. She'd tried to pay attention, but the entire time she'd imagined sneaking up behind the teacher and just sinking her teeth deep into his jugular and draining him completely. It was completely unbearable, and even Eden was starting to get nauseated from the sensation. It was a foreign thought to her, drinking human blood was forbidden. Finally the bell rang and the entire class ran out, sending gusts of blood scented filled wind past Renni. She wilted slightly as she thought she was going to pass out.

Finally everyone was out of the room. As the girls finally left out of the class room, the teacher stopped them. "Renni, could I talk to you."

Renni stared at him blankly. She could just imagine sinking her fangs in his jugular. She could smell his blood; it was AB positive. She gave Eden a pleading look, still holding on to her arm, begging her not to leave. She didn't; Eden turned around and smiled at the teacher. "Actually Mr. Williams, Renni's not feeling very good. I think she's sick and I was going to take her to the bathroom."

The teacher stood up. "Does she need to get to the nurse?"

"I don't think so." Eden said. "Thank you though," and she left, still pulling Renni along.

She didn't let go of her until they were at their lockers. As they changed their books out, Eden turned to Renni. "We'll go tonight. I don't want a repeat of today. I thought I was going to hurt him." She said stuffing her algebra 2 book in her bag.

"Well, you can sympathize with me then." She stuffed a book in to her locker violently. "I thought I could go longer than this, but apparently not." Renni said. She sighed. "I don't know what I'm going to do next period. I have English and you have Algebra."

"I blame Carlisle for this." Eden said tartly, ignoring the glare she got. "If he'd hadn't been so lenient on your drinking blood to begin with then we wouldn't be in this situation." Renni didn't say anything and shut her locker. "Well, either way, we'll have to get out tonight if anything. I know we can get some small game in the park. I think we'll have to go out of the city to get anything really big, but something better than nothing at all."

"Yeah, all right, I'll see you after class." As the girls parted ways, Renni rounded the corner of the lockers and saw Justin standing there. He had his arms crossed and his eyes squinted. "Oh, hello Justin." She said, hoping he hadn't been listening to her conversation with Eden.

"Where are you guys going tonight?" He squinted at her; apparently he had heard. Renni stared at him and just glanced over her shoulder. Eden was long gone to class. She was completely on her own to face Justin. _Time to turn on the innocent._

"I don't know what you're talking about. We're not going anywhere tonight unless you're parents are planning something." She said innocently. Justin narrowed his eyes at her, but Renni gave him her largest puppy dog eyes. He was unmoved, until Renni just walked around him. "All right, bye Justin. I have class now, and if you don't hurry you'll be late too." Justin looked down at his watch.

"Oh, shoot!" He rasped and bolted to his next class.

The day dragged by for Renni, and even to some extent Eden, who was occasionally the buffer for Renni's almost uncontrollable hunger. Finally, everyone was around the dinner table. Eden and Renni were quietly pushing their food around their plates, waiting for dinner to be over. The lasagna that Mrs. Russo made was unappealing to them, it didn't satiate their hunger. How could they even dream about eating it, when their mouths watered for something more substantially liquid? Even Eden was craving the sweet red nectar of a deer. She'd spent all afternoon ignoring her homework and searching for areas with most animal activity. Most of it was in New Hampshire, so that's where they were going. She'd mapped their paths out so they could make a fast kill and get back. The only stipulation, be back before morning and the Russo's realized that they were gone. "What's the matter mijas?" Mrs. Russo asked, "Aren't you hungry?"

"No, I don't really feel like eating." Renni said as she pushed her plate away. "I'm not feeling well, and E isn't either." Mrs. Russo came around the table and took both their chins.

"Are you sure?" She put her hands on their foreheads. "You're not running a fever, actually you girls feel kind of cold." Renni pulled away quickly.

"Yes, I'm sure." She replied. "I think I'm going to bed." She said getting up from the table.

"Me too, I think Renni gave me whatever she has." Eden announced, following Renni's suite and heading up the stairs. As she ascended the stairs, Eden felt a nudge at the back of her neck, and cast a glance at the direction of the pull. It was Justin, again. He was staring at her intently, but his eyes were distant. She felt her mind trying to see something, but there was a block there. Something like when Alice had her visions and the entire coven was blocked from it. A shiver went down her spin but she ignored it.

Justin watched Renni ascend the stairs. His vision shifted suddenly and passed everyone. His mind felt disconnected from his home surroundings as everything fogged was in a forest; it was dark and a pungent arcane smell filled the area. He saw glimmering skin nearby, there was red dripping down the arm of it and he saw familiar brown curls tossing in the pale light and suddenly a pair of blue eyes glared at him from across the clearing. He was paralyzed as the figure gracefully lunged at him.

"JUSTIN!" Alex screamed, bringing him out of his trance. "It's your turn to clear the table."

"Huh?" he came to and started gathering up dishes. It took him a moment to realize that he'd cleared dishes last night which meant it was Max's turn. He turned around to talk to Alex, but found himself in an empty room. He sighed and started grumbling to himself. He looked in time to see the edge of something blonde pass by the balcony window. He ran to the balcony and looked down over the railing. The city bustled below him, and cold air nipped at his face as he leaned over as far as he thought he could, but he didn't see anything. Justin sighed and moved back to the door, but not before casting a glance over his shoulder. Something was off about tonight. He could feel it.

Eden smiled, her hunger satiated for a while. She had taken down a small dear. She was so excited to eat again. Mrs. Russo made good food, but she spent most nights in the bathroom vomiting it up. It was part of her vampire nature. She could eat it, but she couldn't make it stay down. Renni was worse; she usually spent a good hour directly after dinner vomiting her food up. She couldn't even make it stay down. In some ways Eden could feel superior to her coven sister, but at the same time, Eden was completely alone in the world, the only one of her kind. Renni, on the other hand, knew that if she went to South America she could quickly find an entire coven of creatures like her. Eden finished draining the deer, and went to find Renni.

The small brunette was also devouring a deer. She heard Eden approach. "I forgot how good blood tasted."

"It's only been two weeks." Eden said.

Renni just glared at her. "Well, I mean, I've been so hungry lately Eden and it's especially hard with so many humans around. I mean all I have to breathe and I get millions of different scents at once. Some smell so good, I just—mhhm. Either way, blood tastes good."

Eden nodded. She looked up at the sky. Little flurries of snow were drifting down lightly. They landed on her face, but didn't melt immediately. She wondered what everyone was doing in Forks right then. It was three hours earlier, and from what she could judge meant it was around midnight there. She sighed. A part of her longed for home, to be a part of a coven. Her mother was actually understanding.

"I miss home too." Renni said. She sighed and looked at the deer in front of her. It had been a clean kill, but a small trickle of blood emptied from the neck where Renni had been drinking. It was echoed by blood dripping from her mouth. She licked her lips, and wished her family was there to make her feel better. Sometimes the sight of blood around her made her sick. She couldn't help what she was. She was born into it and didn't have a choice. Renni looked up at Eden. "E," she said, "do you ever hate yourself for what you are?" She didn't exactly expect a response, Eden was a lot like Arimeathea in the way that she closed herself off from the rest of coven; she let the thoughts flow through her, but rarely gave any thoughts back.

"Yes," Eden responded. "I can't stand myself sometimes. I hate being so alone Renni, I mean honestly. I bet I could search the world over and not find anyone else like me. I hate myself for not being something that should even exist. I feel like the entire world is waiting for me to fail at being—well—at being a vampire and those who aren't are waiting for me to fail at being a Maladroit." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She let the smell of the forest wash over her, trying to calm her mind with the stillness of the night.

Renni didn't reply to that immediately. She wasn't expecting such an emotional outburst from Eden. She considered her own status in life. No one was waiting for her to fail. She couldn't fail, there was no danger in Renni biting someone and them turning into vampires and destroying the human race. There was no danger of anything, and she wasn't alone. She did have the coven in South America. They were quiet for a while. Renni looked to the east, and saw the first rays of day light coming over the trees.

"We should get back." She said. Eden followed her gaze and then nodded.

"Yeah, the Russo's will be up in a little while." Eden took Renni's hand and teleported them back to their room in Waverly place, leaving the clearing where the dead body of a deer lay, bleeding out. They didn't see the red-eyed vampire enter the clearing after them, sniffing the air. He saw the deer and could smell the lingering scent of humans, vampires, and of all things a Maladroit. He'd only come into the area, he hadn't seen the girls at all, but something told him that the Volturi would be very interested in what a human, vampire, and Maladroit were all doing in the same area. He smirked and sniffed the area, catching the whiff of two humans. The vampire took off in their direction. He was hungry and breakfast was calling to him.

Moring broke on Waverly Place, as always Renni and Eden were the first ones up. They felt better for the prior night's escapade. The smell of humans wasn't affecting Renni as much as it had been before; she was now able to go down with the family and not feel the need to repress her basest feeding instinct. They still didn't eat breakfast though. After breakfast, Eden was getting ready for classes. She was in the bathroom brushing her teeth, when she suddenly got the feeling that someone was watching her intently. She stopped for brushing her teeth and looked around her. There wasn't anyone in the bathroom, and she couldn't exactly see where the person was. Then a wall fell, she got a full image of herself talking, she wasn't quite sure what she was saying, but she could hear one word, "Justin." That was the only thing she could remember. Eden woke up when she heard Max banging on the door.

"Eden, get out of the bathroom, I need to PEE!" He yelled. She sighed and finished brushing her teeth before gliding out of the room. She passed the boys room and saw Justin, half dressed. He just gave her a weird look and shivered. _Was it him? Do I see through his eyes, and does he see me?_ She asked herself. Renni put her hand on Eden's arm.

"What are you thinking _about_?" She asked mentally.

"_Justin_—

"_EWWW_!"

Eden glared at her. "_Not like that! I think he sees me_."

"_Well, duh, he sees you. We all see you Eden_." She retorted. Eden glared at her again. With the feeding, Renni got some of her personality back. She wasn't so co-dependent on Eden's ability to absorb her thoughts and feelings.

"_No, he has visions, of me. It's odd, he's in trance and can't remember much, but it's definitely a vision of some sort_."

"_Well, I don't know, only Aunt Alice can really say about visions and all that_." She looked down the stairs. She let go of Eden and went down to greet the family good morning.

Eden sighed and went back to Justin's room. She wasn't entirely sure of what to say, so she just stood in his doorway ant watched him intently. She'd seen her mother do that when she was trying to work something out of her father. It was intimidating to have her stare at you. Her eyes just naturally bored into people, maybe because they were so blue. She let her face go blank as she watched him, waiting for him to respond to her presence.

Justin could feel her eyes on him. It unnerved him. She was watching him walk around his bedroom and get his books together and stuff them in his messenger bag. She didn't move from watching him, which was starting to freak him out a little bit. Her stare was blank, but those blue eyes just watched him. "Is there something I can help you with Eden?" He said finally turning to her.

"I'm not sure, Justin." She replied politely. "Is there something you can help me with?" She asked.

He rolled his eyes. "I don't think there is." He walked past her and brushed against her hand. He shivered; she was freezing cold. He cast her one last glance over his shoulder as he went down the steps. Eden walked after him slowly. He was harder than she thought.

Was there something in this town that was keeping him here? His every plan to leave New York City was completely foiled. At every turn his plan to vacate the city was thwarted, as if some unseen force was corralling him there. He'd kept his ear to the ground and heard that there were vampires in the city, and not wanting to cross paths with one, he'd tried to evacuate. Something was stopping him; pushing him in, like something had roped him. It was dragging him towards Waverly Place it seemed, since for the past week he'd found himself wandering the streets around the area, tasting the wares of the shops. He's been shunning the Late Night Bite; it was a known vamp haunt. He decided it was better if he didn't come so close to them. Being in this general vicinity was bad enough. Today he thought he'd go into the Waverly Sub Station. He'd been in there a few times. He liked it well enough.

He went in the shop. It was early the afternoon on a Saturday, so it wasn't incredibly busy in the food shop. A few girls were standing around, a young Hispanic looking girl, a redhead and a blonde girl. The blonde girl turned to glance at him as she was going up the stairs. For a moment he thought his heart stopped, when his eyes landed on her pale angular face and icy blue eyes. She didn't acknowledge him, and continued up the stairs. No, it wasn't her. He thought as he went into the shop and sat down. The Hispanic girl took his order, but he couldn't shake the feeling that the blonde girl was somehow related to him, but he hadn't seen Ari in centuries.

TBC...

And after a long break, chapter seven! YAY. Anyway, tell me if you see any errors, I read over it a few times, but I don't always catch things. I hope you all enjoy and please by all means read and review, even if you hate it. I don't mind. Just tell me why and I'll see how I can fix it.

Baby Turtle


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 the family that preys…

Ari paced back and forth on the porch anxiously. She couldn't be still anymore; the stress was starting wear on her nerves. Bjorn watched her quietly from his corner; he was beginning to worry. She wasn't sleeping at night, and running with the vampires all the time. Despite what she said, he knew her body couldn't take much more of this. She was also driving herself insane. He knew from brief moments of unguarded mental chatter that she kept searching for the slightest sound of Eden's thoughts. Racking her mind violently, scouring every thought that she came across, and filtering through the rest of the family. It was a little trying at times, but still, they understood as much as they could.

"Arimeathea, please sit down, you're going to wear a hole in the floor, my love." Bjorn chided gently, as he patted the seat next to him.

She turned around and looked at him, her bone straight blonde hair flicking behind her. "I can't. I know she's out there somewhere, and I can't stop looking."

The burly vampire stood and walked across the porch. He wrapped his arms around her tightly, and put his face into her hair. He breathed in her scent for a moment before speaking. "Ari, my love, making yourself sick isn't going to help anyone." He looked down at her as she craned her neck to see him. He kissed her forehead. "Unfortunately for us, our daughter is very much like her handsome, charming, and fantastical father. She probably charmed herself into some unsuspecting family. Fortunately, she's also stubborn, tough, and hardheaded as her mother." Ari elbowed him gently and he laughed. "So she's got such a package, she'll be fine."

"Bjorn, how can you be so calm and not worry?" She asked him. Ari looked down at his massive hands, measuring hers against his.

"Because, my love, you're worrying enough for both of us." He replied and chuckled as he watched her compare hands. She was very small compared to him, but then again, most people were. In his human life, Bjorn was considered a freak of nature by most of the people. He was 6'3'', and twice everyone's size, and in medieval Europe that was inhuman. Ari was about to reply when someone howled in the distance. They both tensed and looked out towards the direction of the howl. Leah, who was inside talking with Alice, ran out to the porch.

"That was Seth." She exclaimed. "He's found someone." Ari's heart skipped a beat.

"Who?" She said breathily. Leah shook her head.

"I'm not in wolf form. I just know his howl and what that one means." She replied. Arimeathea felt her stomach tense. There were other members of the wolf pack rushing from random points, around the house to where Seth was howling. She opened her mind for a moment and saw what they were howling about. One of the wolves had caught an unknown intruder in the woods. She perceived the situation through their mind, and gasped when she saw the person that Seth was ushering towards them.

"What?" Leah asked turning towards her.

"What's he doing here?" Arimeathea snapped.

"Who?"

Ari just pointed to the front yard where a troop of wolves corralled a man. The man in the yard was practically a male version of her. "What are you doing here?" Ari demanded as she walked down the front steps.

"Hello to you too, Ari." He replied coolly. He was wearing an expensive suit, and leaning on a cane.

Bjorn saw his wife bristle and moved next to her. "Who are you?" The pair just ignored him.

"Leave, Joseph. You're not welcome here."

"By whom?" He asked, eyeing the coven of vampires that were gathering around her.

"By me." She retorted.

"Then your pets don't mind my presence."

"Leave, Joseph." She repeated more harshly.

"You said that already, Ari. Don't be boring." He inspected his finger. "Besides, Father wanted me to send his regards."

"Father?" Ari asked. She narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously.

"Yes, Sister dear, the man who gave you life." He looked away from his nails. He smirked when he saw the surprise encrypted on the coven members faces.

Ari could sense the sudden surprise of her family. She just ignored it. "That's all he did for me. Now, go back and tell him your report."

"I'm hurt," he said clutching his heart. "You think I am simply our father's lackey."

"No, I don't think so Joseph, I know so. What does he want?"

Joseph glanced at the vampires surrounding him. "Aren't you going to invite me in?" he deflected. "It's almost tea time."

"No," she replied matter of fact. "Leave." She turned around to walk back inside, but Carlisle stopped her.

"Ari," he said in a low voice. "If this man is your brother, he's welcome by the coven." He continued. Ari pulled her arm away from Carlisle's grip and glared over her shoulder at her brother. He just merely smirked at her. Ari looked away from Joseph and clenched her jaw. She didn't say anything as she stalked into the house. Carlisle sighed, and looked at Joseph. The man was a fop; that was plain enough. His hair had streaks of darker blonde. He was wearing an Armani suit. The cane he leaned on was completely out of place. It had a fishtail at the bottom and the knob was a large ruby. This man was the complete opposite of the Arimeathea. She was strong, earthy, and more than likely didn't even know what Armani was. Carlisle walked down the stairs and extended his hand to the young man.

"Hello, I'm Carlisle Cullen." He said cordially. He extended his cold hand for him to shake, but Joseph turned away disdainfully. Carlisle hung there for a moment, before smiling. "Please come in." He continued politely as if he had shaken his hand.

"I suppose I can tolerate a few hours in the company of you lower beings." He referenced the group. Carlisle smiled. He made a wide sweeping motion allowing Joseph to pass. Some of the wolves that gathered around growled at him as he walked by. Seth was growling the loudest. He crouched by the steps and snarled at Joseph as he passed. The Maladroit lifted his cane to hit him in the face, when his sister's voice stopped him.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Joseph. It could possibly be your last move." Joseph glared at her and then at the wolf at his feet.

"You would kill your own brother for the sake of this beast?" He asked.

"Not I, Brother, but I most certainly wouldn't try very hard to stop his brothers." She nodded to the five other wolves that were now hovering inches from Joseph, their long sharp teeth visible under their snarling lips. Thinking better of his situation, Joseph smoothed his clothes and ascended the stairs. Once he'd entered the foyer, Esme ushered him into the living room, where Alice was retrieving a tea service. The vampires and Leah all sat around him waiting for him to say something.

Arimeathea sat across from him, between Bjorn and Carlisle. She drank her tea, but glowered at Joseph the entire time. Jasper, sensing the hatred tried to send more positive emotions to her, and when that didn't work, he broke the uneasy silence.

"So," he started. "Joseph, how far apart are your Arimeathea?" Joseph turned to the vampire, and smirked.

"You live with these low bloods, Arima, but they know nothing about you. How quaint." He chortled. Then in reply to Jasper, he said, "Arima and I are fraternal twins, a rarity among our race." He sipped his tea lightly.

Ari looked at Bjorn. _"I wish he would just die. He's so pompous." _She thought to him. He gave a soft laugh, and glanced at Joseph. Carlisle was trying to make polite conversation, but Joseph just replied dismissively. He felt that all the vampires were completely beneath him. He was something barely similar to barely civil to them. When the tea was over, Ari had had enough. She stood up quickly, startling everyone in the room.

"All right, Joseph, tea's over. You can leave now."

Joseph stared, his icy blue eyes wide with shock. He wasn't used to people being so dismissive. He arched a delicate eyebrow and looked down at his tea cup. "Well, I suppose I can see where I'm not wanted." He set the cup down, and stood slowly.

"It took you that long to figure you we don't want you here?" Bjorn retorted, standing behind his wife. Joseph looked affronted.

"Very well then, I'll show myself out." He grabbed his over coat from behind the chair and pulled it on. "I leave you with no regards Arima. These low bloods have diluted your sense of familial pride." He called over his shoulder as he walked back to the front door. Ari followed him to the door and opened it for him.

"Hardly, Joseph, my family never showed any pride in me. Why should I should any pride in them? The coven is my family." She replied tersely. "I send no regards to your father; he has nothing to deserve them. But do give mother my love." Joseph snorted, and Arimeathea shut the door. The wolves guided Joseph safely out of Forks, while the vampires questioned their protector.

"You weren't very nice to him." Bella said as she helped Esme clean up the dishes. "If I had a brother, I think I would want to be nice to him."

Ari snorted. "I'm sure you want to catch the plague too." Bella gave her a questioning look. "Joseph is like the plague. He does only my father's bidding, and will wreak havoc as an added bonus. Seeing him meant that our father wanted some type of information. Speaking of which, by the way, Jasper thank you for keeping the emotions at a low." She cast a smile over her shoulder at the blonde vampire.

He smirked in response. "It was my pleasure, ma'am." He replied. Ari would often tease him about his southern drawl, which he'd never been able to lose, and he would tease her about that slight English clip she still had. He'd been very useful in controlling the negative emotions, especially Bella, who had been crying uncontrollably for weeks. He'd immediately noticed Ari's tense air when her brother arrived. Trying to keep the peace, he exuded calming emotions on everyone, but it was the conversation between the Ari and him that made him actually control the negativity.

"_Jasper, my brother is a bad sign. He's looking for something." _She had said to him through a private link.

"_Can you see what it is?"_

"_No, he knows my abilities and is keeping himself closed off."_

"_What can I do to help?"_

There was a brief silence, while Ari hated her brother intensely. He'd sent some more positive emotions her way, but they didn't seem to take effect. He tried to remind her that he was awaiting her orders, but breaking her glaring silence. Finally, she responded to him. _"Keep us all a little happier than we feel."_

He'd done exactly that, and they had forced Joseph out. Now, he could only hope whatever information he'd been scouting for he hadn't found. Arimeathea seemed to think that it had something to do with her father.

Later that night, when Jasper, Carlisle, and Ari were sitting in the living room, they discussed the next course of action.

"My father would not send Joseph here unless he was searching for something." She said.

"You think your father knows something about where the girls are?" Carlisle asked. He had some hope that if Arimeathea's father did have any information on Eden and Nessie, he'd be willing to share it with her.

"It's hard to say. Joseph wasn't forthcoming with information. Though I do think a visit to my father would be under advisement." She sighed and leaned forward. "If I do go, Jasper, I'll need you to come with me. My father and I—" she trailed off. Jasper nodded.

TBC….

So, yeah after a long absence I decided to update. I hope you like the chapter. Don't worry the plot will come together soon enough I hope. Read and Review. Even if you don't like it, tell me why. Anyway, happy reading.

Baby Turtle


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Strays Together

The trip from Forks, Washington to New York City was a quick stint for Joseph. Once he was rid of the wolf pack that followed him from the house, he teleported to the Chatwal hotel. His father, Abashai, usually stayed there when he was in New York City. He went to the concierge and got a message from his father, telling him to meet Abashai outside the "Sub Station", a sub shop in Waverly Place.

As Joseph stood outside the Sub Station, not too much later, he wondered what possible business his father could have here. They both usually avoided places like this in favor of the finery of life, unlike his sister, who was willing to mingle with lower beings. Joseph shuddered at his surroundings. Everything there was so common; there was even a vampire shop not very far from where he stood. He glanced down at his watch to see how much longer he would need to wait in the hovels of society. It was a quarter past four; his father was already ten minutes late. Joseph sighed. Abashai was usually fashionably late, which meant he'd have to wait another twenty minutes.

As if on a cue from a director, a taxi pulled up at 4:45. As his father stepped out of it, he tossed some money into the car for the driver. There was a certain essence of the highest of society that exuded naturally from Abashai. He always wore perfectly tailored suites. His physical appearance only added to the essence. Abashai was a little taller than Joseph at 6'2", but much broader. His dark brown hair was always combed back neatly. His face was angular, and the trademark vivid ice blue eyes of the family always seemed to bore into people.

He adjusted his overcoat, and straightened his tie a he walked towards Joseph, who bowed his head at him as a sign of respect. Abashai nodded his in response.

"Father," he said to him.

"Joseph," he replied with a nod. "Come; let's get in out of the cold." He said motioning towards the sub shop. They went inside, and Joseph found the patrons even less desirable than the location. Teenagers getting out of school saturated the diner. Their young eyes turned to them immediately, and whispers broke out. They, like all good Maladroits, were accustomed to being gawked at by lower beings, especially humans.

"This is a rather disgusting place, Father. What possessed you to choose it?" He said with a tone of disgust. Joseph felt tainted by the commonness of his surroundings.

"Hm," his father said with a smirk. "I have my reasons. How is your sister?"

He rolled his eyes at the mention of his sister. "Just as much as she ever was; still loving those low bloods. She has an entire group of them that she calls her _family_ and is now adding mongrels to her ranks. She has no sense of propriety, and sends no regards." He replied disdainfully. His sister's love for the lower common people, even of their own race, had always disgusted him. How could she, born into such privilege, mingle with those so unprivileged?

"I sent none to her." His father replied. He looked at his watch. "They're late."

"Who?"

"My reason." He said, a hint of annoyance in his tone, but then his blue eyes lighted. "There now, Joseph, tell me who do you see?" He asked with a nod of his head towards outside.

Craning his neck, Joseph looked behind him and was incredibly surprised at what he saw. There was a group of young women walking towards the sub shop. Three of the four young women were of little concern to him. Two of them, a plump red headed girl and a dark Latin girl, were obviously human. The other dark haired girl had ringlets, and peachy skin. He could tell she was not as human as the other two, but he had no idea what she was. The fourth one, however, was tall and pale white. The girl's winter blonde hair and vivid blue eyes were uncannily familiar to him.

"If I hadn't seen her just yesterday, I would think it was Arimea." He replied to his father's question.

"It is uncanny how she resembles our family." He said, almost with a note of accusation.

"She's no frolic of mine." Joseph retorted, his pride immediately coming to the defense. They watched the girls come into the shop, the Latin one ran to the back, and the other three immediately put on aprons and started to work.

"I never said she was. I do believe she belongs to someone else." His father said with a wicked grin as the girl approached their table.

She didn't look at us immediately, because she was focused on fishing a pen out of her apron. "Hello," she said politely as she wrote something down on the pad. "I'm Eden what can we get for—" Finally she looked up and her words died on her lips as she gaped at them. They both stared at her, expectantly, grinning like cats that had eaten an entire flock of canaries. Joseph saw the recognition in her eyes as she regained her composure.

"Eden, was it?" Abashai asked, in their native tongue.

"Uh, yeah," she responded still dumbfounded. "Do you already know what you would like to order?" She looked like a frightened deer for a moment longer. They ordered their meals, still speaking in their native tongue, and she wrote them down faithfully. She was obviously Maladroit. Once she had their order down, and read it back to them with a shaky voice, she hurried away from their table to the kitchen.

Abashai looked at Joseph still smiling and asked, "What do you think? Is she?"

While the girl, Eden, was standing before us, Joseph had taken great care to dissect her face. She had Arimea's skin tone, her hair, the family eyes, though her nose and mouth were a little different. They looked more like one of the vampires he'd seen yesterday. The one that—

"She is. In fact, I can tell you who the father is as well." Abashai looked intrigued. "The father is one those low bloods that Arima trmps about with."

Abashai raised an eyebrow. "Truly?"

"I speak in earnest, Father. I thought that their relationship seemed different from the rest, but I only had the briefest moment to observe them."

"Well this makes things a little more interesting than I had planned. If your sister is breaking some type of mandate, no wonder she would keep the girl out of our reach." They both watched as she talked to the plump redhead and motioned at their table. After the initial meeting, she avoided them the entirely.

Two days later, Arimeathea and Jasper stood outside a lavish hotel in London. He stared up the expanse of the building quizzically. "You're sure he's at this one?"

Ari nodded her pale head. "Mother said he would be here. She said the past two weeks he's been spending a great deal of time in New York, but then the contacts there said that he and Joseph retreated back to dear old home." She explained as they walked into the hotel.

"This is home?" Jasper asked with a raised eyebrow.

"For them, yes." She sighed and walked to the concierge. She waited patiently for him to notice her. "England is one of the traditional homes for Maladroits." Jasper nodded in response. We waited for a few more minutes, and then finally, the concierge came over to them.

"Can I help you?" He said snobbishly.

"I'm here to see Lord Abishai." Ari replied unimpressed. The man raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm Arimeathea." She explained, slightly annoyed.

"Oh," the man said with some recognition in his voice. He picked up the phone next to him, and then made a phone call up to the penthouse.

"Sir Abashai, there is an Arimeathea here to see you." He paused "Yes, sir, and she has—" he looked directly at Jasper. "Your name sir."

"Oh, Jasper Hale."

"A Jasper Hale with her. Shall I send them up?" He asked. "Very well then, Sir." The man hung up the phone, and then turned his attention to them again. "You may go up now, Mr. David will see you. He is in the penthouse."

Ari nodded. She and Jasper walked over to the elevator and got in. She pressed the button for the penthouse

"Mr. David?" Jasper asked her curiously

Ari chuckled. "Yes, Abashai was King David's nephew." She said. "It's not uncommon for Maladroits to have Biblical names. My mother was very clever and paired mine and Joseph's names, 'Joseph of Arimeathea'." She laughed wryly at the statement.

The doors swished open, cutting her laughter short. They walked down a short hall to the penthouse. Ari didn't bother knocking she just opened the door. The penthouse was lavishly decorated with all the latest trends and fashions. Jasper saw Ari's face harden immediately as she approached the living room and saw her father.

"Arimea," Abashai said coming around the corner. "And Mr. Hale?" He asked Jasper, giving him a condescending look.

Jasper nodded his head. He wasn't there to make conversation; he was mostly there for emotional support.

"Father," she replied curtly, cutting off any further introduction.

"How is my daughter?"

"As you see." She retorted.

Abashai regarded her for a moment, as if he was contemplating what that statement exactly entailed. Bored and impatient, Ari pushed the conversation forward. "Was there anything you required of me that you would send Joseph to me?" She asked him.

Abashai sighed and moved to the kitchen. He opened his fridge and pulled out a bottle. "Can't I request after my daughter's well being?" He asked as he poured himself a drink. "Thirsty?" He asked pushing a full glass into her hands. He ignored Jasper, which was fine. He didn't drink anyway.

"You have not requested after my well being in the past century, Father. There was something specific you were looking for." She continued.

He shrugged and sipped his drink. Jasper could feel a confrontation brewing on either side, and pushed peaceful emotions heavily on Abishai. After that, he stood by patiently and listened to the passive-aggressive banter between Ari and her father. Suddenly something caught his attention, a flash of dazzling skin as it retreated at lightning speed into the back room. He'd thought he'd caught a whiff of something when they entered, but now he was sure. He glanced at Ari. She seemed to be O.K. for a few minutes while he investigated.

Jasper inhaled deeper, getting a taste for the other creature—another vampire. He was sure of it now. He followed the scent to the back of the penthouse and to a room. He had his hand on the doorknob and heard a violent hiss from the other side. He was about to open the door when—

"Is there something I can help you with?" A voice suddenly said. Jasper whirled around and saw Joseph.

"No," he replied. "I was just looking around." Jasper gave one last wary glance at the door. The scent was gone, so the other vampire had left. Joseph tried to distract him from what he knew Jasper was after.

"Just like you low bloods, no manners. It's very rude to be nosey in someone else's home." He retorted haughtily. Jasper shrugged.

"I'm sorry." He mumbled brushing past the Maladroit man. He walked back into the kitchen to stand next to Ari. She and her father's conversation was constrained to a barely civil level. Jasper assessed the situation quickly. It seemed like Abashai was trying to bait her. Ari didn't give in, though, and handled him expertly, deflecting any imposing questions. Jasper could sense a little annoyance on her part and forced some more positive feelings on her, but the entire mood changed when Joseph sauntered around the corner.

"Hello sister dear," he said mockingly.

"Hello Joseph." She replied, rolling her eyes. Jasper felt their malignance and tried to force something more positive on them, but they both had the same emotional will of iron.

"This one's not yours Arimea. I'm surprised." He nodded at Jasper.

For a brief second, his words shocked her. Quickly, she recovered. "Well, Brother, he can't be yours either."

Joseph glared at her. "At least I didn't lose mine." That hit a nerve, and no amount of Jasper's happy feelings could help.

Ari stared at him blankly for a moment. Her fingers gripped the full glass still in her hand tightly, and her white knuckles turned a shade whiter. Her thin lips pulled into a line, and she spoke her next sentence carefully. "Joseph, you'll never mention that again." She responded as calmly as her voice could allow.

"What? That your mate was a fool and got himself—" A slosh of liquid stopped him from finishing. Joseph glared at her darkly. "How dare you?" He yelled. "This was Gucci!"

"How dare I? How dare you?" She responded. "You have no right to speak of him to me, you spoilt brat." The siblings advanced on each other with murder in their eyes. Joseph tried to land the first blow, but Ari stepped neatly out his way, and shattered her glass on the back of his head. He grunted and immediately gripped his blonde hair, now tinged with blood. Jasper was glad Joseph wasn't human and that his blood didn't appeal to him.

"Speak again Brother, and I'll break your face." She said, her voice had a deadly tone of warning.

"Father," Joseph said, "look how she behaves like a savage beast. Do something." Abashai shrugged a mild amusement in his eyes.

Ari rolled her eyes in disgust. "You are such a woman." She turned to Jasper. "Let's go." He nodded and followed her to the front doors. "I take my leave, Father, and leave you with no regards." She called over her shoulder. Jasper had to step up his pace from a normal walk to keep up with her long angry strides. He could sense her smoldering anger. He knew it was futile to try and make her happy. Sometimes with Arimeathea it was easier to just let her burn.

Once they were back in the lobby, Jasper noticed Ari's demeanor was still sour. She walked brusquely through the lobby and stormed outside. She stopped outside the revolving doors, and looked up at the top of the hotel. It didn't take Jaspers' sense to tell him that she was considering going back up there and maiming her brother. It seemed that she was going to do it at that moment, so he rushed forward and touched her arm. "Ari," he said gently. "Are you all right?"

"He had no right to play that card." She snapped. "He knows—he—I hate him." For the first time in weeks, Ari's extremely firm control on her emotions was gone. She threw her arms around Jasper and just sobbed openly. He tried to soothe her emotions with his power, but at the same time, he held her close as well, letting her salty tears soak his shirt.

Internally, he tried to ward off her feelings, but they bombarded him. He knew she always kept her feelings under a tight wrap, but never realized to what extent. There were so many emotions she'd kept secret. Ari regained herself and straightened her back.

"I'm sorry." She muttered to him. Jasper shrugged and smiled at her.

"It's all right, sometimes you have to let go of emotions. I should know." He replied, still offering her his grin.

She nodded and gave him a sheepish smile.

"Anyway, I have something important to tell you." Jasper said, trying to take her mind off killing her brother.

"Yes?" She asked using her sleeve to dry her eyes.

"There was a vampire in your dad's place. I saw it, and smelled it. I think it was in his bedroom, but your bro-Joseph stopped me from looking in there."

Ari's shoulders dropped. She sighed and glanced back at the top of the hotel. "What is he planning?" She asked rhetorically.

TBC….

Per the request of my stand in beta, and good friend, I broke the last chapter into two pieces for readability. I'm trying a new style with these just to help my point of view jumps. So now you all can see some of the plot starting to thicken. Again, constructive criticism, flames, or happy comments are always welcome.

Baby Turtle


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